Children of the Night
by Hime
Summary: Serena Silvermoon lives in NYC with her bestfriend, a wereleopard, and with their other roommate, a vampire--What to do when a killer comes to town? What happens if he brings along some unwanted guest? *Chapter 8 uploaded*
1. Nightlife

Children of the Night  
Chapter I-- Nightlife  
"I love the nightlife. I got to boogie..."  
-Alicia Bridges  
  
  
The dance club was dark, with the usual flashes of multi-colored lights streaming along the walls and onto the floor. The music had a savage underbeat to it, perfect for the animals prowling inside the club. She was standing by the back wall, dressed in a crimson blouse held closed by two buttons, a black miniskirt, and black thigh-high boots. She had black hair, a swirl of midnight surrounding her ivory face. Her topaz-colored eyes had a 'come hither' look to them and her ruby-shaded lips were fixed into a permanent pout.  
  
"Why don t I buy you a drink?" asked a handsome man, coming to stand by her. She slowly turned around, looked at him intensely before smiling, then nodding yes, she asked for a coke since she didn't want to get bombed tonight. The man praised her common sense and went to get her drink. It took him awhile to get back. He said he had to fight the crowd since the place was packed. She glanced down at the dark liquid in the plastic cup and gave the man a half smile. He watched in anticipation as she drank the entire contents without stopping. The cup dropped from her grasp and bounced once on the granite floor before spinning to a halt and getting crushed as the man stepped up to the girl when she started to wilt.  
  
"Let s get you out of this heat." the man murmured to her as he helped her out of the dance club. He started toward the parking lot and managed to put her in his car. As he got in the driver s seat, his smile of concern melted into one of success. Who knew that this girl would succumb so easily to the drug he had slipped into her drink. He shut the car door and heard it lock without him touching anything. Startled, he turned toward his passenger and found her wide awake looking at him. In the dark confines of the car it looked as if her golden eyes were glowing.  
  
"What the hel-" He was cut off as she grabbed his shirt collar, bringing his face toward hers.  
Staring into her gleaming eyes, a strange lethargy came over him. "One would think you re handsome enough to not need any date-rape pills, hut I guess one never knows." She whispered into his ear, more to herself then to her hypnotized victim. She pulled him closer and leaned over to nibble along his throat. She felt his pulse speed up and smelled the scent of fear on his skin. Even hypnotized, his body knew her for what she was--a predator. Her ruby lips curved into a smile and framed the whiteness of her fangs as they slipped out from her upper jaw and sank into his flesh.  
  
Ten minutes later, the door of the car opened and the woman stepped out into the night. Before closing the door she leaned over and spoke to the driver once more. "Go to the nearest police station and admit to your crimes. Remember nothing of me." she stepped away from the car as the engine turned over and as soon as the door of the car was shut, the car accelerated toward the nearest exit.  
  
She watched as the car sped into the night and licked her lips in satisfaction. "That will teach you to mess with a defenseless woman."  
  
*****  
  
"Faye, do you know how late it is? And where have you been?" Serena Silvermoon questioned her roommate as she staggered into the New York City loft they shared with another girl named Sahara, really known just as Sahra Thomson. Serena's deep blue eyes flashed with anger, an emotion she used to keep the fear at bay, and her long blonde, unbound hair danced around her small frame.  
  
The black-haired girl blinked, either in surprise or because of the fact that all the lights in the loft had been turned on. She looked at Serena and one eyebrow went up.  
  
"Late enough and I ve been out drinking," She smirked at the blonde, flashing her fangs at her.   
  
"Can t you smell the blood on my breath?"  
  
"Oh, you re so irritating sometimes. 1 don't know why I care." Serena whirled away and snatched the tray of tea she had made and took her load to the kitchen. Guilt, annoyance, and then a soft smile crossed the vampire-girl's face as she followed her friend.  
  
"You care because you re you." Serena looked at her friend and smiled, forgiving Faye for the worry she had inadvertently caused. Faye picked up a wash cloth to dry the dishes that Serena had begun to wash. "You shoudn't worry about me, I can take care of myself"  
  
"I know you can take care of yourself. I mean, Goddess, you re a vampire of course you can take care of yourself. But I can t help but worry when you re out this late. You have nothing to worry about from a normal human being, but what if you meet up with another vampire or even a vampire hunter? What then?"  
  
"You re such a worrywart. Don t you know that all true vampires are related?" Faye smiled ironically. "We re like one big happy family. And, as for the vampeals, they are only imitation vampires and I can handle them easily."  
  
"What about vampire hunters ?"  
  
"What about them? The day a vampire hunter gets the better of me. is the day I die."  
Serena arched one eyebrow and looked pointedly at Faye. Rolling her eyes. Faye said. "Wrong choice of words. Anyway, if I was in serious trouble all I would have to do is call out to you and Sahra and you two would take care of the matter for me.  
  
"I would do what?" Sahra asked and then yawned as she stumbled into the bright kitchen. She scratched her tawny colored hair that was dyed to a bubble gum pink on top and went into the freezer. Finding the carton of chocolate almond ice cream, she took it out and set it on the counter. Opening a drawer, she took out three spoons and gave one to each of her roommates.  
  
"If I got into trouble you would turn into a ferocious leopard and fight off the evil vampire hunter out to get me." Faye told Sahra, reaching into the carton to get a healthy spoonful of ice cream.  
Sahra s grin was reflected in her purple eyes as she said, "And of course, Serena s spells will heal both of us after we re through kicking the snot out of him."  
  
"Speak for yourself . I wouldn't be needing the spells. That vampire hunter would never be able to touch me. You on the other hand-"  
  
"If you re so good why do you need me and Serena to come to your aid ?"  
Serena laughed at her friends and once more thought how weird it was to have a vampire and wereleopard as roommates. But I guess you can t be choosy, she thought to herself , when you re a witch. Digging a chunk of chocolate out of the carton, Serena paused in reflection as she remembered her first meeting with Faye.  
  
*****  
  
Two Years Earlier  
  
"Miss Bloodstone, we ll let you know when we make a decision." Serena said smoothly.  
  
"Miss Bloodstone, you would be the perfect roommate." Sahra said at exactly the same moment.  
  
Faye looked at the two women interviewing her and sighed. "Why don t you go and talk about it amongst yourselves before telling me what."  
  
Serena and Sahra looked at each other and then back to the beautiful girl before them. Nodding, they got up and went into the kitchen.  
  
"Okay what s wrong with this one? If we reject her, that'll be the fifth person we ve turned away." Sahra was exasperated. She had better things to do then interview perspective roommates.  
  
"Hello, you re a wereleopard, can t you tell when you re in the presence of evil?" Serena all but screeched this to her best-friend.  
  
"Actually I resent that. I may be a vampire, but I m not evil." Faye stepped into the kitchen.  
Serena began to mentally run through the defensive spells she knew off the top of her head and hoped they would be enough.  
  
"You re a vampire?" Sahra asked curiously. "I thought I smelled old blood on you, but I just figured you liked your meat rare."  
  
"Very rare. How about still alive!" Serena fired off, her voice as hot as the fire spell she was thinking of casting.  
  
Faye sighed. "Just because I m a vampire, it doesn't mean I m the scrounge of the known world, you know?"  
  
"Tell that to 'Mina and 'Jonathon Harker !" Serena spat out.  
  
Faye looked amused. "Bram Stoker? Is that why you don t care for vampires? If all literature was true, shouldn't I be wondering how come your place isn't set in the woods, made out of gingerbread?"  
  
"Excuse me?" Now Serena s voice was so cold, Sahra had to restrain herself from shivering.  
  
"You know, 'Handsel and Gretal'? You being a witch and all."  
  
"How did you know that? I made sure my power aura was at human level."  
  
"Yeah, but your talisman," Faye pointed at the silver crescent moon pendant hanging right   
below the hollow of Serena s throat, "That thing is just screaming power." Serena clutched at the pendant and just glared at the vampire.  
  
"Yes well, 1 can say for sure I've never ate children. Can you say the same?"  
  
"Look, I understand your reluctance to share your home with a vampire-" Serena snorted.   
  
"Don t interrupt me. I m not evil and I don t kill anyone. I only feed on those who deserve it. I   
only prey on those who prey on the weaker."  
  
Sahra looked at Serena, then at Faye, then back to Serena. She shrugged her shoulders in a loose feline way that made Serena grit her teeth. "I don't understand all the fuss. She doesn't kill anyone and only feeds on those who feed on humanity. Also, she passed our threshold, didn't she? If she was truly evil, wouldn't your spell have stopped her from entering?"  
  
"The only reason you re siding with her is because you re a predator too." Serena accused her roommate.  
  
"How can you say that? You know I m a vegetarian."  
  
"Wait a minute. You re a wereleopard but you don't eat meat. How does that work?" Faye asked, looking, for the first time, confused.  
  
"My family has always been vegetarians, and anyway, the only real nutrient in meat is protein and you can get that from beans and other vegetables."  
  
Faye tossed a look at Serena as if saying. 'Is she for real? .  
  
"Her mom's a zoologist." Serena explained. Her eyes became suspicious. "How did you know that Sahara was a wereleopard?" she asked.  
  
"As soon as I felt her presence, I knew she was a were-something, I just wasn't sure what animal. I didn't know she was a leopard until you said so when you first went into the kitchen." Faye gave Serena a shrug. "I have exceptional hearing."  
  
"I bet."  
  
"And I thought her name was Sahra, not Sahara."  
  
"My mom named me after the Sahara desert where I was conceived, but people just usually call me Sahra for short."  
  
"Look, let me tell you some things about vampires. There are two types- the true vampire and the made ones called vampeals. The race of Vampires have been living just as long as your species. We are part of the natural food chain. Every species has a predator, and we are yours. And vice versa, yours is ours. We breathe air, walk in the sunlight, and live like other people. It's just that we have a few extra talents that we can use. The vampire hunters got rid of the stupid ones and the smart ones learned to hide their presence within the human realm. We learned to be discreet and clever. We are not allowed to kill our supper, just take what we need to survive. The ones that don t learn this rule, usually die, and not all the time at the hands of a vampire hunter. If needed, the vampire community will clean up it s own messes."  
  
"If all you say about vampires is true, then how come the rumors say that sunlight kills you?" Serena asked.  
  
"Born Vampires are natural, just a different species from yours. But there are those vampires that are made-"  
  
"And those are called vampeals." Sahra interrupted, happy to be included into the conversation.  
  
"Yes, vampeals. Those are unnatural beings and that s why naturals abhor them. They are the walking dead. You see, when the sun dawns, the vampeals die once more, and come back to life at sundown. They cannot cross running water unless they are powerful, they catch on fire easily, and wood can pierce the skin like a hot knife through butter." Faye tossed a glance at the fascinated Serena. "That is why witches especially hate vampeals. Vampeals destroy the balance between nature. Vampeals need to drink more blood than vampires because first of all, their body cannot produce it. Also, they need the restorative energy blood gives them when they come back to life each night."  
  
"What can you do? I mean-" Serena stopped in the middle of her sentence.  
  
"Me, personally or vampires in general?" Faye asked with a blank expression.  
  
Serena glanced around the brightly lit kitchen and then said, "Both."  
  
"All vampires are born with hyper senses. After werepeople, vampires have better vision, hearing, scent, taste, and touch. The average vampire is much stronger and faster than your average human, though some humans can exceed our speed or strength. We can will our bodies to lie dormant until time is better to have us wake once more. And we can do small spells like witches." Faye nodded her head to Serena. "We can do some hypnosis through our voices or eyes, some vampires are better than others with this skill. Vampires don t get sick, or at least hardly ever. We also heal fast and age slow. I m a little over two centuries myself." Both Serena and Sahra looked shock. To them, Faye looked about twenty-two in age, about the same age they were.  
  
"That s why a vampire child is rare," she continued. "Nature gave us age, but she made sure we wouldn't be able to overrun the Earth with our numbers. I am one of the last vampire children to be born in our circle. What I just told you is all I can do."  
  
"But, how come in all the stories, vampires can do such awesome things?"  
  
"Ah. while we are natural and have natural powers like those found on this world, vampeals are truly the abnormal and their powers are given accordingly. The powers they gain through death are a way to make up for the fact of thier unnaturalness. It's like when someone becomes a psychic or they gain some sort of supernatural powers because of some brush they had with death. Well, it s kind of like that with the vampeals. There are different types of power that vampeals might have, but vampeals never get all these powers. Some can levitate and some have more hypnosis skills than most other vampires or vampeals. Some can actually hurt you without touching you and some gain telekinesis or a small dose of telepathy. A lot of power that is gained has to do with the mind. It seems after death the vampeal can use more of their brain then humans and vampires."  
  
Faye was obviously done with her lecture. But Serena s curiosity was far from satisfied and as she opened her mouth to question Faye, the vampire shook her head and said, "Uh-un. If I m not going to room here, there are other apartments I have to see before it gets too late." Once more Faye arched her brow at Serena.  
  
Serena looked at her roommate and found Sahra examining her nails very hard. No help there. Taking a deep breath, Serena held out her hand to Faye and plastered a weak smile onto her face. "Will you be paying your two month s rent by cash or check?"  
  
*****  
  
The Present  
  
"Serena, Serena! Put the spoon in your mouth already, the ice-cream is starting to drip on the table." Sahra said before mumbling under her breath, "And you-know-who is going to end up cleaning your mess."  
  
Serena was just about to remind her roommate of all the times she had to vacuum leopard hair out of the rug when someone knocked on the door. Right there in the brightly lit kitchen, Serena felt a wave of foreboding go through her. Still, she got up and made her way to the door, her roommates following closely behind her.  
  
"Should I open it, or you?" Asked Faye. Serena looked at Faye and pointed toward the door.  
  
The vampire girl said, "You know, nothing good ever comes from a visit at 3:00 in the morning." Sahra nodded her head slowly as if Faye had just uttered something truly wise. Serena sighed in exasperation. Faye shrugged and positioned herself so that when the door was open, Serena would have a clear view--and Faye would have control of the door to slam it shut if needed.  
  
The door was pounded on again. Whoever it was sounded very angry.  
  
"Okay, you can open the dooooaaahhhh!" 


	2. A Cat's Life

Children of the Night  
Chapter 2- A Cat's Life  
"A cat is more intelligent than people believe, and can be taught any crime."  
-Mark Twain  
  
If you had just met the three roommates, your first impression of them would be that Faye was the exotic beauty; Serena was pure and child-like; and Sahara was the nicest one of them all. Sahara was the type of person to let someone else cut in front of her in line and she never argued about where they should go whenever they went out. She was just to nice a person to fight with anyone.  
  
Now that's a lie. Oh, not that Sahara wasn't a nice person, she was definitely a nice girl, but that wasn't the reason she was so agreeable with everyone around her. The fact of the matter was that Sahara is, well, lazy. It's so much easier to let someone cut in front of her in line then it was to argue with that person. And the same goes with deciding on what she and her friends would do. Let Serena and Faye hash it out together, Sahara usually enjoyed whatever they did together no matter who won. She just enjoyed spending time together with her best friends. In fact there was only three things in Sahara's life that she did feel passionately about-- drumming, sleeping, and her friends, not in that order, necessarily.  
  
And so it may come to a surprise, but then again maybe not, that though Sahara was the most lazy of the three, she managed to grab Serena away from the door and kick it shut before Faye could finish registering that Serena was screaming.  
  
"Are you okay?" Sahra asked Serena while she judged the thickness of the door. Not much could freak Serena out enough that she would scream unless it was something majorly bad and Sahra hoped their door would hold up.  
  
Serena looked at Sahra, speechless. This had been one of the few times she had ever seen or maybe not seen Sahra do something that energetic. Serena shook her head slowly and said in a calm voice, "I'm alright. Open the door, Miss Tiller is standing out there."  
  
It was Faye's turn to look scared. "Do we have to let her in?" she all but whined.  
  
Serena smiled and said, "Now Faye, she's not going to hurt you."  
  
"She doesn't like me." Faye said flatly. Miss Tiller was a neighbor of theirs, a retired model, she lived with only her french poodle to keep her company. The reason she disliked Faye was because Faye reminded her of what she used to be-- young, beautiful, and someone in front of the public's eyes. Faye was an indoor model at Saks. When Serena and Sahra learned that Faye's employee discount could probably be used to get them stuff, Sahra went around with a gloating smile that said `wasn't it a great idea of mine to have Faye come live with the two of them.' Like Sahra cared about clothes or makeup anyway  
  
Giving Faye a sideways glance, Sahra opened the door, framing Miss Tiller in a pink bathrobe holding what looked to be a piece of meat up to them all.  
  
Blinking, Sahra said, "Oh, I'm sorry Miss Tiller, but I'm a vegetarian and I don't think that Serena or Faye eat raw meat." Miss Tiller blinked herself and then shook her head as if to clear it.  
  
"This isn't raw meet, this is Snowy!" She all but shouted at Sahra.  
  
"Oh," Sahra said, then cocked her head to the right and asked, "Why did you shave him? He looked better with fur."  
  
"I didn't shave him! It was her dog!" This time Miss Tiller did shout. Pointing to Serena, she stalked into the apartment looking around as if to find Serena's offending pooch.  
  
"Um, Miss Tiller, I don't have a dog. I own a cat." Serena said, walking toward the woman.  
  
Miss Tiller swung to face a large green houseplant. "Don't lie to me, missy. I can hear your dog barking at the latest hours and you calling him Rex."  
  
Faye didn't even bother hiding her smile. Miss Tiller was virtually blind but was too vain to wear glasses. Every time she came over, she always ended up talking to the plants or lamps.  
  
"Um, my cat's weird." Serena said, reaching a hand to Miss Tiller's shoulder and leading her to the sofa to sit down. "Why don't you let me have Snowy, I'll get him clean and bandaged." Serena took the dog into the kitchen, set him on the table then sighed. Now the table would have to be washed. Thoroughly. Three times. After cleaning the wounds, she found that Snowy had a lot of surface cuts and some bruising, nothing too serious. Snowy was just a wimp of a poodle. Rummaging through the drawers and finding the jar of healing salve, Serena rubbed the mixture onto the dog. Cayenne for fast recovery and to stop internal and external bleeding; Ivy for protection against infection; Birch for cleansing, and Carnation for healing. Mix well with unscented hand lotion and you've got balm that will heal minor cuts and bruises in a day.  
  
As soon as Serena had rinsed off the lotion's residue from her hand, the cat in question jumped onto the window sill. Serena glared at the black cat and Snowy started to whimper. "Shoo, or Miss Tiller will catch you and she is so not happy." The cat gave a small bark, sounding exactly like a dog and leapt out the window onto the fire escape. A couple more leaps and she was running down the street. A second later, Miss Tiller came into the kitchen.  
  
"I thought I heard a bark in here. Did your dog come back?"  
  
"That was Snowy, Miss Tiller. I told you, I don't have a dog."  
  
"Humph." She swept the poodle into her arms and almost walked into the wall when Serena reached for her shoulder again to guide her way out. She was soon standing before the door. Faye had opened it as soon as she heard both of them came out of the kitchen. Sahra had her hand covering her wide grin, like Miss Tiller could see.  
  
Standing in the door frame, Miss Tiller turned and said, "If that ruffian of a dog even goes near my Snowy, I will have that dog put down, you hear me? I know very important people in high places." As Miss Tiller walked to her apartment, cooing sweet nothings to her dog, Faye closed the door and said, "High places is right. They're probably all dead by now." Sahra dropped her hand and gave into her laughter.  
  
"Speaking about being dead," Serena began, "you better go to sleep Sahra. I need you to come to work tomorrow." Serena was in charge of Silvermoon's, a store that catered to the neo-pagan/new age crowd at a designer price. One would be surprised on how many rich people dabbled in the craft because it was the latest fad. The store also supplied items to the serious witches and such, but at a much lower price. Silvermoon's was a family business, Serena's grandmother started it saying "Where does it say you can't be a rich witch?" They're were now two stores- one in Los Angeles and the other here in New York.  
  
Now it was Sahra's turn to whine. "Why can't Comet work. She's your day manager."  
  
"Her name is Cosmos-"  
  
"What kind of name is Cosmos?"  
  
"Like you should talk Sa-ha-ra." Faye said.  
  
"Hey, my mom gave me the name. Cosmos choose her own name when she was "reborn".   
How do you get reborn anyway."  
  
Ignoring Sahra, Serena went on, "Cosmos is taking a personal day off. I need you to come in to relieve me, okay?"  
  
Rolling her eyes, Sahra agreed. She needed the money anyway.  
  
Serena smiled at her friends and said, "Well now that we had our fun and ice cream, I know a kitchen table that needs to be cleaned."  
  
* * *  
The Next day  
  
As Serena walked her cat down the New York street, no one seemed surprised at this sight. They had all seen this before.  
  
"Luna, I can't believe you did that. Luna?" When her cat didn't respond, Serena rolled her eyes and said, "Rex." At that the black cat looked up at her mistress. "You know," she told her cat, "I understand that my brother wanted a dog and all, but did he have to train you to respond to the name Rex? I mean you're a female cat. He could have given you a female dog's name." Serena's brother, Sam had wanted a dog and when their mother had given them a cat instead, Sam had trained it to act just like a dog. Serena had not been pleased when it began barking and chasing cars. The cat started to walk toward a straggly tree and began to squat. Serena turned her head away until she heard a small bark. About to walk off, she stopped when someone put their hand on her arm.  
  
"Excuse me miss, but it's illegal to leave a pet's waste on the sidewalk."  
Serena went still and gulped. She slowly turned her head to the officer beside her. She looked him in the face noticing his black hair, blue eyes, his straight even teeth shown by the smile on his face. Then she looked down and saw he wasn't wearing a police uniform. She looked back up. "You're not a cop are you?"  
  
He laughed. "Not even close. You do know your not suppose to do that, don't you."  
  
"Why not, it's fertilizer and that tree needs all the help it can get." He laughed again.  
  
"Hi, I'm Mamoru."  
  
"I'm Serena. You're Japanese?"  
  
"Half on my mother's side."  
  
"Oh." She didn't know what else to say. Impatient to continue her walk, Luna gave a sharp bark.  
  
He blinked. "Did you know your cat just barked?" he leaned in close and whispered to her.  
  
"Um, yeah, she does that. She, uh, thinks she's a dog." Serena whispered back, blushing.  
  
"She thinks she's a dog? That's great. You have to meet my dog. He thinks he's a cat named Whiskers."  
  
"Really ?" Serena asked, eyes wide open.  
  
Mamoru put his face close to hers and smiled. "Nope, I was lying."  
  
Serena felt her face heat up in embarrassment.  
  
"You know your cute when you blush." He said and leaned in closer until she felt his breath on her lips. Then Luna chose that moment to use the bathroom again--on Mamoru's leg. At his small yelp, Serena looked down and began to laugh.  
  
"So you thought that was funny. Well now you owe me since your cat ruined my pants. You can make it up to me by taking me out to dinner. I'll pick you up at seven. And just so you know, I don't put out on the first date."  
  
Serena stopped laughing. "Dinner? Date?"  
  
Mamoru smiled again, his good humor restored. "Yes, dinner is a meal usually eaten after the sun sets. Date is what we are going to do tonight." Smiling, he leaned in close to Serena again, looked down to see where her cat was and gave her a quick kiss before she knew what was happening. He had ran off before Serena came back into orbit.  
  
"A date?" She pressed her finger tips against her lips and felt them curve into a smile. "A date." She said to herself. "Wait a minute! He doesn't know where I live!" So Serena went running down the block after him, dragging her cat behind. She caught him two blocks over. 


	3. It's Showtime

Author's Notes:

Author's Notes:

Hi, well I wondered if any of you were confused reading this story.This is an Alternative Universe with the characters of Sailor Moon.There is no Sailor Moon, Sailor Senshi, or Moon Princess in this story. Also, the familiar Senshi that you know and love might not be so recognizable when you see them in this story.The only two people who retain their names are Usagi as Serena (remember, they are living in American and in this story, Serena is of American descent) and Mamoru. Can you recognize Faye and Sahara as anyone?See if you can guess who they are supposed to be.Also, could you please leave me some reviews?I'm very praise hungry…^_~

Also, I do want to thank the 2 people who did review for me…if you like, would you like to be in my story?Send me an email and we will work something out, ne? This offer is for "**Jordan**" and "**Anime Sister**".And Anime Sister…do you really want to know if you're right or not? ^_^

~*~*~*~

Children of the Night

Chapter 3- It's Showtime

By: Hime

Email me at: [hime@alloymail.com][1]

~*~*~*~

"We are the girls, we are the girl's, we are the girl's of rock 'n roll!"

-The Chippette's

~*~*~*~

Serena rushed through the glass door Silvermoon's at exactly 1:47p.m. making her 17 minutes late.

"You're late." Sahra accused Serena.The upset wereleopard stepped out from behind the counter; hand's on her jean-clad hips and glowered at her friend.

"I've got a date." Serena announced calmly.Two seconds passed, then suddenly Sahra and Serena clasped hands and jumped up and down.

"Is this a two person thing or can anyone jump in?"

Serena turned to Faye and told the girl, "I've got a date!"

"That's great.I haven't seen you date in the two years I've lived with you…what's his name?"

Serena's smile started to slip."Mamoru."

"Mamoru what?"

"Um, I only caught Mamoru."

Faye frowned."What does he do for a living?"

"Ah, I know he's not a cop."

"Do you know anything about him at all?" Faye asked, exasperated.

"He might have a dog or he might not."

"You're starting to sound like Sahra!"

Sahra looked up from her nails and said, "Yes?"

Faye rolled her eyes."You don't know anything at all about him, yet you agreed to have dinner with him?Are you crazy!"

"Crazy like a fox." Sahra said, looking at both of them.When they only looked back at her, Sahra smiled and looked down at her nails again.

"When was the last time you've went on a date anyway?Faye demanded.

Serena pouted and said, "College.Look, I'm an adult.I can take care of myself."

"You know how much jerks there are out there.This is New York City!I meet them everyday!"

"You go out looking for them.That's who you eat!"

"People are watching you know," Sahra said, "there also leaving.Anyway, Serena can't go on a date tonight."

Faye smiled superiorly."See, Sahra agrees with me."

"No, I don't."Sahra said, "We have a gig tonight."

Serena smacked herself on the forehead."I forgot.When is it?"

"Eight at the Firetrap."

Serena brightened."I'll meet him at seven and then bring him along."

"You're actually going to let someone you know watch you?"Faye asked curiously.As long as the three of them had been in a band, Serena had been embarrassed about it.She didn't even let her family know she was in a band.A year ago, when the band that Sahra was in, went defunct, she had begged Serena and Faye toperform with her.All she needed was exposure and then she could join up with another group.But here they were, doing another performance together.'We were conned.' Faye had thought to herself after the year had past.

"I'm not good?"Serena asked nervously.

Sahra said to her best friend, "You're great!I would never have asked you to perform if you weren't."Serena gave Sahra a hug and gave a look to Faye as if saying, "See, at least she thinks I'm good."Faye rolled her eyes again.

"I'm just worried about you.Like how you worry about me.Please don't take it the wrong way."Faye pleaded with the golden haired girl.

Serena reached out for Faye and pulled her into a hug with Sahra in the middle.For a moment or two, the three young women swayed together in the quiet shop.

"Heh heh heh…I alwaysknew witches were lesbians."

The three broke apart and looked at the man in front of them.Altogether they gave him a sultry look and slithered their way to him.Serena stood in front of the young man, hands on his black shirt that read, "Cat: The other white meat".Her hands hovered over the word 'meat', before placing them right on his scrawny chest.She looked up at him under her lashes, and whispered softly, "Well only when we don't have the company of a strong, virile man."

"Oh yes," Sahra purred into his left ear, her warm breath made him shiver."It's been ever so long and you look perrrrrfect."

Hands wrapped around his front from the back and Faye began to pet Serena's long hair.Faye then started to caress his chest and then moved to his back.By now the guy was groaning.Faye massaged his shoulder blades, ran her thumbs down his spine before reaching the waistband of his pants.Feeling around, she grabbed the hem of his white underwear and with a big grin, pulled it up as hard as she could.With her vampire-strength, she managed to give him a world-class wedgie.

"AHHHHHHHH!He screamed and jumped away from the three.They all laughed and hooted as he hopped out of the store, trying to dig out what should not have been pulled into in the first place.

"That was the best." Sahra wheezed out, bending over and holding her stomach."We haven't done that in a while.I wonder if those jerks tell their friends about us?"

"Speaking of jerks,"Faye continued, as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened, "can't you see why I don't want you going out with some guy you don't even know?"

"Okay, okay.Why don't you two meet him at the apartment with me.If he doesn't cross the threshold, then that means he's bad.But if he does, you have to shut-up and let me live me life."

"That sounds great.I get to meet your new boyfriend."Sahra grinned.

"He's not my new boyfriend," Serena protested, and then mumbled, "at least not yet."

~*~*~*~

Serena stood center stage, in front of the plain microphone stand in front of her. She glittered in the spotlight, the light catching the glitter on her white tank top and the glitter applied on her shoulders and arms. The black of her short skirt contrasted to her porcelain-hued legs, which made them look much longer then usual. Her long hair was in a thick braid, hanging down her back.Her head was bowed a bit; her long bangs hiding her eyes and when she looked up at the audience, those blue sapphires were filled with tears.Her hands were wrapped around the mike as she leaned forward to sing:

"I can't blame the rain, 

for all of this pain.

No, I can't blame the rain…

But I can blame…you…"

As Serena's voice trailed off, her eyes closed once more and Sahra started her drum solo, the vibrations filled the air as she savagely pounded her most prize possession.The lights on stage picked up her pink highlight and glittered off of the sheen of sweat on her shoulders, bared by a leopard skin halter-top.On the eighth count, Faye began to play along on her lead guitar, eyes closed as she jammed along.Her black hair swirled around her, playing peek-a-boo with the skin shown by her black, strapless mini-dress. Soon, Serena opened her eyes and in them was an explosion of feeling.She opened her ruby-stained lips and began to sing about how _that_ _guy_ would never win, would never break her heart forever.As she sang, the clubbers danced in the crowded area, gyrating to the sound, to the feeling.

Off to the side, Mamoru smiled at the singer on stage.Who knew that the girl he had made blush that afternoon was now telling her ex-lover to pack up and leave--she had better things to do then baby-sit him.He brought his drink up to his lips and almost choked when he saw her making eyes at some other guy dancing close to the stage.He knew that was part of the song, part of the concert, but he still felt a surge of raw anger that someone—some other male was making eyes at his—his—was she his?That thought calmed his fire and he again took a sip of his drink.'So fast and furious—is this what mom meant when she told me about her and dad?'He watched as Serena seductively danced with the microphone stand as she sang about needing someone who could light a fire that even the rain could not put out.The music began to linger over chords, the beat not so wild.Serena began on her last verse, singing about searching for the one she would truly love, when she looked straight at him, and Mamoru felt something connect with her—a longing, a feeling, a love?Her last note died on her lips, her eyes still locked with his.Her friend, Faye, nudged her with her hips, causing Serena to break the spell and look at her band mate.They smiled at each other and they turned to the audience to smile at them.That had been their last song of the night.

The audience went wild in applause; whistles and shouts filled the space and the announcer was booed at when he rushed on stage.He smiled though, ruefully.He knew why they booed: his appearance meant the end of the show.He went to the front of the stage and Serena graciously passed her microphone to him.Taking it, he began to speak.

"And that was Children of the Night!Show them how much we love them here!"The crowd responded in full force, shouting out Serena's, Faye's, and Sahra's nick names: Moon Child, Dark Child, and Wild Child.Serena brushed stray pieces of hair away from her face and waved to the crowd.Faye tacked on a polite smile, though she hated her stupid nickname—hated nicknames to begin with.And Sahra stood up behind her drums and waved her hands over her head, loving everything.The three ran off stage as soon as they could and soon, the d.j. began to spin a local favorite dance tune.The audience then turned toward each other and began to match themselves up without any trouble.

Serena searched the crowd for her date.They hadn't met up at her apartment actually.He called around six saying there was an emergency he had to look after and wanted to know if they could meet somewhere in the city later on.Serena didn't know whether to feel let down that he wouldn't be able to pass the threshold test or happy that she didn't have to introduce him to Faye and Sahra.She knew one of them would say something embarrassing, though which one, she wasn't sure of.

Jumping up and down wasn't easy in her 4-inch heels, but she managed to spot him before breaking one of them.Quickly she made her way toward him and wasn't surprised when Faye and Sahra followed her without saying a word.She gave them one look over her shoulder, which said plainly, "Behave." Which they answered with a look "We will."When she turned her head forward once more, Faye and Sahra shared a look of their own, "We'll behave if he does."

The trio finally reached him and he gave a huge smile to Serena.He reached out and pulled her toward him, he's 5'11" frame towering over her slim stature.He raven-hair contrasted with her golden locks, as bent his head toward her lips as she began to talk to him, asking him if he enjoyed the show.Smiling, he told her that as long as he was watching her he was happy.Faye and Sahra shared a look and a raised eyebrow.Having Vampire and wereleopard hearing was a big advantage in the noisy room.Sahra then stuck her pointer finger in her mouth and made gagging motions when Serena turned to introduce them to Mamoru, whose last name she found out was Shields.

Serena's face was red, from embarrassment or anger she wasn't sure which.Sahra was so shocked at being caught doing what she was doing, that she froze like that.Faye slapped her hand to her forehead in disbelief.It was Mamoru's laughter that broke the tension.

"I bet you're Sahara." He said, holding his hand out toward the wereleopard.The hand that had been at her mouth, was now behind her head in embarrassment.She nodded and then grinned at him.She returned his handshake heartily and only when he gave a slight wince, did she let go.He then turned to Faye and said, "Nice to meet you."Faye looked at his outstretched hand and then back to Serena's urging face.She sighed and took it within hers, his palm cool and slightly rough.She made sure not to hurt him and let go as soon as it was polite.Serena beamed a smile her way.

"This is Ma-" she began to speak, when interrupted by the tall man beside her.

"My name is Darien Shields."He smiled again.From his side, Serena's face went confused as did her friends.

"Serena called you Mamoru," Sahra said and then asked, "Did your emergency have anything to do with you changing your name?"

Everyone blinked.Serena then pulled him aside."You told me you're name was Mamoru!"She hissed to him. "What are you trying to pull?"

He smiled down at her."I'm sorry but my name really is Darien Mamoru Shields.It's just that only those close to me call me Mamoru."If it weren't for the dark lighting in the club, you would have been able to see his slight blush at his confession.Serena's face softened and then turned red as she processed what she just heard.She glanced down at the floor and then over to her friends.They nodded, having heard what he had said to her.Faye almost smiled before stopping herself and Sahra wanted to do the gagging motion again but common sense told her that this wouldn't be a good time to do it.

Turning back to her friends, Serena announced to them as if they never heard what had transpired between her and Mamoru, "Call him Darien."

~*~*~*~

Omigoddess…it's 4:17 in the morning and I have a dentist appointment at 10:30.I hope you guys appreciate this chapter! ^_^

Please remember to review; I need some sort of tangible praise…

Sorry Anime Sister, I haven't answered your question yet…oh well there is more to meet's the eyes to Darien Mamoru Shields…but that part of the story will have to wait until later…ja ne!

   [1]: mailto:hime@alloymail.com



	4. Shield & Sword

Author Notes:

Author Notes:

I am very sorry this took so long to get out.Finals came up and then my grandfather dies.After that, I got the dreaded case of writers block…*sigh* But hopefully I will be once more on schedule.BTW, I love getting reviews…Thank you!Just to let you know, Faye is suppose to be Rei and Sahara is Minako.Also, I hope no one is offended by Darien's little "bathroom" scene…Also, there is two obscenities.For those who are offended by them, gomen ne.I understand, I would never actually say it out loud myself, but some of the characters in this fic are going to swear.

~*~*~*~

Children of the Night 

Chapter 4- Shield & Sword

By: Hime

[hime@alloymail.com][1]

~*~*~*~

"To serve & protect."

-Police Officer Motto

~*~*~*~

"Have fun on your _date_?"A snide voice called out from the darkness of the living room.

Darien Mamoru Shields stubbed his toe in surprise.Hopping on one foot, he fumbled for the light switch on the lamp."Don't do that."He scolded the brunette sitting on the couch, sharpening her silver knife.She was always sharpening her knives; a high silver content caused them to dull quickly.

The girl's green eye's glanced up slyly at him, her hand stilling on the blade."You came home pretty early…"

"You came home pretty early." He mumbled snidely under his breath."Yes, as a matter of fact, I did have a fun time.In fact we're planning on going out again tomorrow."

At that, the girl lost her smile."We are here on a mission, not so you can make out with some local girl.You don't have time to have fun.We have to find _her_."

"I know how important this mission is—"

"Do you?Do you really?You only just started to help us out.You don't know anything."A second girl walked out from the 

shadow-filled hallway.Her short blue hair was tousled from her hands constantly running through it."You're family is still alive—they weren't torn apart by werewolves or eaten by vampire's."Her silver cross glittered in the light.Her eyes were hard blue coins that showed no feelings, no emotions, except a cold fury."We are here to stop _him_, not for you to find yourself a girlfriend."

Darien stood straight, looking at both girls, unflinching."No, my family is still alive.But I was raised, knowing that I had a mission to help stop the evil that would eat us whole."Darien almost winced as he realized how corny that sounded but caught himself in time and plunged on with his impromptu speech."Since I have known you two, I've never shirked my duties.I've always been there and I've saved your life once or twice now.Do not treat me like an idiot or a fool."With that, he turned and walked to his room, aware of their eyes on his back.Without turning back, he said, "Don't you dare throw that knife at me or you'll get it back in a way you won't like."The brunette sank back down onto the couch and began to sharpen her blade once more as if she hadn't been about to do anything wrong.

As Darien shut his room door, he mentally slapped himself.What the hell was he doing with these two bitter, young women?But he knew that answer.Darien unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it over the one chair in his room.He sat on his bed, unlaced his shoes and pushed them off his feet.Still in his pants, he slid down on his mattress, arms cushioning his head and stared at the picture of his parents sitting on his nightstand.His mother was short compared to his father.His father was dressed in his Navy uniform, looking crisp and neat.Based in Japan, Lieutenant Daniel Shields met Hikari Tenshiro at her father's Shinto shrine.Almost immediately, they fell in love and when it was time for Lieutenant Shields to leave, he was taking with him his new bride.

When Darien first started to see "ghosts" at the age of 6, Hikari listened to him and believed what he was telling her.Her upbringing allowed her an open mind.She actually knew what he had—an inherited "gift" passed down from her side of the family.She knew then that her son had to be schooled this power or who knew what would happen.She managed to always find a spiritual teacher wherever they went.A shaman here, an actual Shinto priest there.He even once studied with a witch doctor in New Orleans.His father didn't know of course—he was unnerved by talk of spirits and magic.Thinking of his father, Darien sighed.His father didn't approve of his 26-year-old son traveling around the country with two girls.Every time they talked, Darien's father always asked when he was going to finish medical school.How could Darien tell his father that stopping rogue vampires and were-creatures were more important than becoming a doctor at the moment.He would never understand.'Then again he doesn't know, does he?' a voice whispered in his head.

A year before, Darien had just finished his second year of med school.He had been with his friends the entire night, getting drunk off their asses.This was the first time he had ever went binging like that, but he figured he deserved it after putting up with five years of no fun.Who would know that by once chance meeting, he would be here today in New York with these people?

~*~*~*~

It wasn't the feeling of nausea that got to Darien—it was the constant urge to pee.

"Dammit." Darien mumbled under his breathe as he got up for what seemed like the 100th time that night to make his way to the men's lavatory.

"Home, Sweet Home." He said, opening the door of the bathroom and doffing his imaginary hat.He looked up to see two men standing in front of the urinals, politely clapping."Dammit," he muttered again and turned away.Walking back to the front of the bar, he passed his friends who were still drinking and laughing loudly."How come no one else has to pee?" he all but whined as he made his way to the front door.Next to the bar was a convenient alley and Darien was so drunk and in need of taking a leak badly enough to get over his fears of such laws as "Indecent Exposure" and "Petty Vandalism".

The air was cold and brisk on his face, clearing his system of his alcohol-induced fog.He had left his jacket inside the bar and he wondered if it would be too "girly" to hug his arms to his chest for warmth."Should I go back in…?" he mumbled to himself as stood right outside the door, shivering slightly in the cold air.But the pressure was too much so he turned into the alley and walked into a shadow-filled corner.Looking around for anything suspicious, he relaxed his guard a bit when he didn't see anything.Unzipping his jeans, he then pulled out little Darien and gave a sigh as he unloaded.He was about to zip up his pants once more when a large blur flew into the alleyway.Stunned, Darien stood there, rooted as the blur landed, showing it to be the largest wolf he had ever seen outside a Zoo.The wolf righted itself and snarled.It never looked toward Darien once, and he was very glad for this.

"Poor little wolfie. Did I hurt you?Good." A girl—no a young woman stepped into the alleyway, her eyes glancing briefly at Darien before locking onto her target.Her hair was…black?It was too dark to make out properly, but it was held back from her face, imprisoned in a tight braid.Silver crosses studded her ears; the only jewelry she wore.Her black clothing fit well, tailored to her tall, structured frame.

"Bitch." 

Darien looked at the wolf in shock.It sounded like it had actually spoken.But the woman wasn't frightened or surprised.She looked amused.

"A bitch? I don't think so. I'm not a female dog you can fuck with." She sneered, bearing her fangs at the wolf who was doing the same. 

With a snarl, the wolf leapt toward her, going for the throat.Darien gasped at how fast the creature moved, powerful muscles lifting it into the air, toward her.She stood there, as if frozen, just like Darien was; helpless to protect herself, to runaway.Then suddenly she was not.Not frozen that is.At the last possible moment, when the jaws of the beast were inches away from her face, her hand slashed before her, the silver glinted in the shadowed alleyway before being stained by a flow of blood.By letting the wolf go after her throat, the wolf's own throat became vulnerable to her fang.Even wounded, the animal was graceful.The same moment it's throat was slashed, it turned a somersault, using its hind legs to kick off of her chest so it could get away.The woman in black fell against the wall.I saw her wince at the impact, but when she looked at her fallen prey, only a smile was on her face.She flicked the blood off her blade and walked toward the huddled wolf.

"You won't ever kill another human being again.I'll skin you, make you into a rug, something I can wipe my feet when I get home." Again, she said this with a sneer.The wolf was silent.Probably dead.She had slashed its throat; nothing could survive that.But still she approached with caution, wary of the broken creature in front of her.She reached out to it, knife first.

Darien never saw it coming.As he watched the knife clatter to the floor, he wondered if the girl had time to regret losing her knife before the big wolf jumped her.As the two rolled over and over, Darien raced for the knife.His hand on the hilt he turned around and saw the two were still.The wolf shuddered once and then fell over to its left, another blade sticking out from its chest.Panting, the sound of her harsh gasping of air was the only thing that broke the silence.Then she rolled onto her knee by the wolf and pulled her knife from its body.She spat on the dead wolf and then said in a low murmur, "For a creature with fangs, you forgot easily that there are always two of them."She wiped the bloody knife on its pelt, and stood up, slowly, as if she wasn't sure she could and then with more confidence as her knees took her weight.She finally turned to look at him again, a half smile on her face as she flipped her knife up into the air to catch it one handed.But Darien's attention wasn't on the girl and her amazing flipping knife.It was on the corpse of the man who had just been a wolf.Darien normally didn't swear, he was brought up to well mannered to do so, but he decided to make an exception that night,

"What the fuck just happened here?"

~*~*~*~

Author's Notes:I was actually going to make this longer but since I know there were some of you out there who really wanted me to give you another chapter, I decided to cut it short.Sorry, I had to cut out what Darien's powers truly are, but that's okay as it adds a bit more mystery to the fic, ne?Hope you enjoyed & please remember to review!

Hime

   [1]: mailto:hime@alloymail.com



	5. Past Love

Author Notes:

Author Notes:

I love getting reviews…Thank you!Now if you hadn't figured out who Darien's two roommates were, you are obviously not watching enough Sailor Moon.Bad Reader!After reading this chapter and giving me a glowing review, I order you to watch all the Sailor Moon episodes you can get your hands on.If it takes a while for me to post the next chapter it will be your fault for not following my orders…^_~

DISCLAIMER:Well this has been the fifth chapter and I have yet to write a disclaimer ~_~; So here we go—Sailor Moon doesn't belong to me (duh!), but the situations do…enjoy!

~*~*~*~

Children of the Night

Chapter 5— Past Love 

By: Hime

[hime@alloymail.com][1]

~*~*~*~

"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."

-Evan Hardin

~*~*~*~

"Have fun on your date?"A voice called out from the darkness of the living room.

Serena barely swallowed her shriek of surprise before reaching for the light switch on the wall."Don't do that."She scolded the blonde sitting on the couch, drumsticks in hand.She had been practicing in the dark on imaginary drums, waiting for Serena to come home.

The girl's purple eye's glanced up in question."You came home pretty early…"

"I know, but we're planning on going out again tomorrow."

"Did you choke?" The blond asked before making a high pitched whining sound before shouting "boom".

"What's that suppose to mean?"Serena asked, confused.

"It means crash and burn. Didn't it sound like crash and burn?"

"No, it just sounded loud and annoying."A second girl walked out from the shadow-filled hallway.Her long black hair was a little damp from the shower she had taken earlier."Why are you home so early?Did you choke?"

Serena stood straight, looking at both girls, unflinching."I didn't choke.I just got nervous."

"She chocked."The other two girls said to each other.

Serena wrinkled her nose at her two friends, but she didn't deny their claims again.Instead she sighed and threw herself on the sofa, making Sahra scramble to get out of the way."I'm such a loser." Serena moaned into one of the sofa's throw pillows."I told him I had to work tomorrow and I needed to get home early.Why did I say that?"She wailed."Oh, but I am going out with him tomorrow night."Serena sat up abruptly, once more in better spirits. 

Sahra cautiously sat down next to her friend.She patted her on the shoulder and said, "Well that's good isn't it?"

Sahra almost tumbled off the sofa when Serena abruptly stood up and clenched her fists."It'll be better then good, it'll be great!I'll be the best date ever!"

"Calm down, you're scaring us."Faye watched the short blonde do her happy dance. "Well, you're scaring me at least."She said when Sahra joined in.Faye turned away from the two and made for the kitchen.As she pushed open the swinging door, she mumbled under her breath, "I'm living with idiots.That's the only explanation."The door opened again a few seconds later.

"You're just jealous cause you don't know the happy dance."Sahra blew Faye a raspberry. 

"I do too know the happy dance!"Faye was suddenly incensed.She began to demonstrate her knowledge."You stick your fists into the air and you wiggle you bottom and then you…" Faye trailed off as the two blondes began to snicker.Faye looked at her hands in the air.'God's, I'm becoming an idiot too.It's contagious.'Faye brought her hands to her face and began to rub it hard as if to wake herself up from whatever dream she was in.Sighing, she sat down and looked at her roommates.They smiled innocently at her.She bared her fangs at them.

Deciding that she had teased Faye enough (the sight of fangs can do that to you), Serena turned to the sink and filled the silver kettle that was on the counter.Once filled, she placed it over the burner, setting it for high.'Shouldn't take to long to boil.' She thought and turned to sit down on the only chair available.

"So why'd you choke anyway?"Faye finally asked, though she was still a bit miffed at the two blondes teasing.She enjoyed watching Serena's cheeks grow red.

"Oh, it's because of 'bastard boy' from college, right?" Sahra said off-handedly, drumming in the air. 

"Sahara!"

"Bastard boy?"

They both looked at Sahra.She was still hitting her imaginary drum set.When Serena reached over and smacked her upside the head, Sahra turned her puzzled purple eyes toward her friend.

"Why'd you do that for?"She whined as she rubbed the sore spot on her head."I was only telling the truth.You did choke because of him."

"And who's 'bastard boy'?"Faye asked.

"He was my boyfriend in college-" Serena started to say before she was interrupted.

"He was her boyfriend from forever!"They were dating high school and all the way up until they graduated from college!" Sahra said excitedly.

"When you call him 'bastard boy-" Now it was Faye's turn to be interrupted.

"Don't call him that.His name was Brian."Serena said quietly.

"But he _was_ a bastard!He broke your heart!"

"What happened to you two?"Faye asked curiously.She had always wondered why her roommate didn't date and now it seemed that she would finally get her answer.Serena just stared at the kitchen table, her hands fisted in her lap.Faye looked at the girl, waiting for her to say something. Finally, Serena raised her head with a blank look in her eyes and opened her mouth.Then the kettle went off and instead of speaking, Serena got up to the stove.She busied herself, making the tea and brought it to the table, before sitting quietly once more.Serena picked up her cup and when she noticed her hand trembling a bit, she brought her other hand up to steady the cup.Taking a sip of the calming tea, she sighed.Faye looked at Sahra.Sahra was just staring at Serena with a contrite look upon her face.Sahra bit her bottom lip, leaving marks.

When Serena put her cup down, Sahra immediately grabbed one of her hands and placed it on top of her head."I'm sorry I brought him up.I didn't realize how much the thought of him hurt you still."

Serena looked at Sahra and smiled sadly.She petted her friend of eighteen years on the head."It's okay.I know you didn't mean to hurt me."Serena scratched at a spot right behind Sahra's ear.Sahra immediately began to purr deep in her throat.Faye watched the two through half-closed lids.She felt an unmistakable feeling of jealousy.Those two had been friends, best friends for over a decade.Faye knew she was their friend, but she wondered how long it would take her to become as close to them as they were too each other.Serena turned and placed her other hand over Faye's.She smiled into Faye's surprised eyes.'You're my friend too.' Serena's eyes seemed to convey.Faye smiled back, her eyes flashing the same message.Serena gave another little sigh and brought her hands to her cup again.

"I meet Brian in high school.He was in my class and since he's last name was similar to mine, we sat near each other a lot.His father was a preacher-"

"You went out with the son of a preacher man!"Faye squeaked out.Her shock was so great she didn't even notice what she had just said.Sahra in the background began to hum the song that Faye had unwittingly quoted.

"Yes, I did.My parents didn't approve but they didn't stop me.And Brian himself wasn't that religious.I think growing up in such a religious family, turned him away from his own religion.Anyway, we became friends and then more."Serena blushed at some memory, before shaking her head and continuing with her story."We went steady though most of high school and then we went to the same college.It was our last semester, almost graduation time when he…when he…" She paused here and took a deep breath.

"When he what?"Faye asked, unable to hold her question.

"When he asked me to marry him."

~*~*~*~

_Three years ago_

"Okay, what did you want to ask me?"Serena smiled into her boyfriend's deep green eyes.The wind played with her golden strands of hair, wrapping themselves around the close couple.Brian's nervous fingers rumpled his chestnut colored hair.He smiled down at her, his eyes filled with love for the girl in his arms.

"Well we've been together for a long time now…" His voice trailed off as Serena glanced down."I love you."

Serena's face grew warm and the smile on her face grew brighter."I love you too."She said softly and raised her face up to his again to say it louder this time."I love you too."She stated simply.He leaned down to kiss her when he abruptly shook his head and instead began to speak again.

"We're going to graduate soon.And I know that you're probably going to take over your mom's store in L.A. and all-"

"And you're going to join one of Seattle's biggest architecture firm.I know that, we've been over it before."Serena interrupted him, not wanting to think past this day, past this moment.Graduation was coming up soon and who knew what the future held for them.

"Why don't you come to Seattle with me."

"What?" she blinked up at him in complete surprise.

"Come with me to Seattle.I mean your mother can still run the store, or maybe one of your cousins.You have a business degree so you can get a job there or even start your own store.And we could be together."He said softly, his eyes urging Serena to agree.

"But your parents hate me," she murmured, looking off to the side of his head."They hate the family business."

"But you won't be part of that anymore so they can't object.And anyway, even if they did, it doesn't matter; they're not the one who wants to marry you.I am."

"Marry…me?"Now she looked him in the eyes, her breath caught in her throat.

"Yes, I want to marry you.What did you think?I was just asking you to move in with me?"

"But marriage.You never said anything to me about this."

"I didn't think I had too.I've loved you since high school and I love you now.I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"You say that so easily."

"I say it from the heart."

"But there are things you don't know.Things about me and my family that might…upset you."

"Like what?I like your family even though they do own some new-age pagan store.They're nice and I know they love you very much."

Serena looked down.She could see her silver chain glint in the afternoon sunlight.Her pendant was hidden beneath the collar of the blouse she was wearing.She pulled it out of its resting space."Do you know what this is?"She asked him, her eyes never leaving the twisting silver moon.It glittered in the sunlight and swung back and forth almost hypnotically.

He looked a bit puzzled, but he answered her question."It's your pendant.The one you never take off."

"Do you know why I never take it off?"

Brian knew a leading question when he heard one so instead of answering he just shook his head no.

Now Serena turned her face to look at him.And just like the sunlight had glittered off her necklace, her sky blue eyes reflected the rays of light from the sun.The wind stopped blowing and her hair fell in disarray around her.The world had seemed to quiet down in that one moment, just as if it was also waiting for some sort of confession.Her lips gleamed and curved up into a tiny hesitant smile.

"The reason I never take this off is because it stores my powers."

"Powers?" 

"Yes, powers.It stores my powers because…I'm a witch."

~*~*~*~

"He didn't know you were a witch and you guys were dating for 8 years?"

"I-it never came up."

Sahra snorted."You made sure it didn't come up."

"Whose side are you on?What happened to 'bastard boy'!"Serena rounded on her friend angrily.

"You said to call him Brian.And I'm just telling the truth.You didn't want to tell him because you were afraid of how he would react."

"And how did he react?What happened after you told him you were a witch?"

"Before or after he called me 'Satan's Whore'?"Serena smiled wryly but there was pain in her eyes.

"Oh I'm so sorry, Serena."Faye came out of her chair and hugged Serena tightly.

Serena patted Faye's arm and said, "It's alright.It's been two years now, I'm over it."Faye released her and went back to her seat."Well at first he didn't believe me when I told him, so I did a little light spell to convince him I was telling the truth.Then it turned out he was much more religious then either of us thought he was.He left right after."

"Left school?"

"No, he just left me there in the park, alone."

"What happened after that day?"Faye wanted to know.

"I jumped him."Sahra said proudly.She made a low sound in her throat, a sound of pride in her skills as a hunter.

"What?"

"Sahra jumped him and I erased his memory of what happened.He thought the reason we broke up was because we were going to be separated anyway with him moving to Seattle.I never saw him alone again.I made sure of that."

"Does your family know what happened?" 

"They never asked me about it but I'm sure my mom and grandmother figured it out.They were the ones to warn me against getting into a relationship with him in the first place.And when my grandmother suggested a store here in New York, I decided I would be the one to oversee the branch."

"And I came here because of the music scene."Sahra filled in.

"And then two years later, I came in, hmm?" 

"Why did you come to New York anyway?Doesn't your family live in California?Hey, wouldn't it be cool if your parents knew Serena's?"

"They don't know each other, I'm sure of it.They live out in Hollywood."At the two blondes interested looks, Faye expanded a bit more."My dad's a producer and my mom, well my mom does whatever she wants."

"But why did you leave?"Sahra pressed for an answer.

"I wanted to get away."Faye stated simply.

"Away from what?"Purple eyes gazed at the vampire sitting next to her.

"In all my years of life, I have only lived away from my parents twice.Once, nearly a century ago, and then now.A child must leave the nest eventually and permanently if she's to ever lead a life of her own."

"But why come here?"Sahra's pressing questions were irritating Faye.

"I don't know why I came here.Maybe it was fate."

"Perhaps it was." Serena's voice was small but it carried across the table.She smiled, a truly happy one; the first real smile she had given since she had started to talk about her past love."Perhaps it was fate that brought you here to this city; brought you here to meet us, so that we could meet you.It must have been fate."

~*~*~*~

_Somewhere else in the city_

_ _

"Dammit!We're too late."A gloved hand fisted and then punched out at the wall.

"Don't hurt yourself."An emotionless voice called out.The owner stepped into the room, ignoring the copper scent of blood that lingered in the air.She also ignored the scent of human waste.The bowel was the first thing to be released after death and the girl had been dead for over an hour.She walked around the room, watching for anything the vampire had left as a clue to hunt him down with.She stopped at a closed door.Though she knew the vamp was gone—he was too smart to stay in the vicinity of his most recent kill-- she was still cautious.Vampires were not the only things that could kill you.She signaled toward the brunette, and slid to one side of the door.The brunette nodded and kicked the door open.Gun first, the blue-haired girl stepped slowly into the bathroom.The other one walked in too and gasped as she saw the wall in front of her.The reason the scent of blood was so strong in the air was because of the message on the wall was written in it.

"Get Darien in here.Show him why we need him to concentrate on this matter and not on his libido."The brunette left to do her bidding.

Cool, collected eyes scanned the short message, written in big block letters.When Darien saw this he would understand why they were in such a hurry to finish this matter up.More people were going to die if they didn't.The message said so.

SHE IS NOT THE FIRST AND SHE IS NOT THE LAST.

~*~*~*~

AN:Well that wasn't so disturbing after all.Well at least it wasn't to me *shrug*.I hope to get gorier later on.I mean I have the "R" rating; I might as well use it, ne?Anyway, now we are going to be getting into the action part of the story.Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!Remember to review, alright?

10/15/01

1:06 AM

   [1]: mailto:hime@alloymail.com



	6. The First Death

DISCLAIMER: Just to let all of you guys out there know that Sailor Moon doesn't belong to me, but the situations do…enjoy Darcy Normal Darcy 52 642 2001-10-22T07:48:00Z 2001-11-10T07:26:00Z 5 2510 14312 119 28 17576 9.3821 

DISCLAIMER:  Just to let all of you guys out there know that Sailor Moon still doesn't belong to me, but the situations in this story do…enjoy!

Correction:  In the last chapter, I wrote that Faye came to live with Serena and Sahra 2 years after those two first moved out to New York.  That's a mistake.  Serena and Sahra just moved to New York when they advertised for a roommate so Faye has been living with them the entire time they've been living in the "Big Apple".

~*~*~*~

Children of the Night 

Chapter 6— The First Death 

By: Hime

hime@alloymail.com

~*~*~*~

"A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic."

- Josef Stalin

~*~*~*~

Faye yawned as she pushed the swinging kitchen door open.   Eight a.m. was definitely too early to be up in the morning.   She looked at Serena, sipping her morning cup of tea while watching the tiny television set on the counter.

"And in local news, twenty year old Joanna Walters was found early this morning in her apartment, murdered—" the television set was turned off by Faye.  

"I can't believe you can watch that crap so early in the morning."  She said with a sniff of disdain.

Serena rolled her eyes when Faye went to pour herself a cup of tea.  Faye was always cranky when she got up.  Not much of a morning person.  'Then again, what vampire is?'  She thought to herself with a tiny smile.

"Good morning to you too Faye.  Sleep well?"  

Faye gave her a disgruntled look, before frowning into her cup. 'Dammit, I've got to get Serena to drink coffee.'  Faye watched as Serena beamed a sunny smile to her before taking another sip of her tea.  'She's not human.   She's gotta be some kind of evil creature to be able to function this early in the morning without coffee.'   

"Why are you up so early?  You usually sleep in."

"Have you forgotten what today is?  It's the fall fashion show!  I have to get my hair, nail's and make-up done.  Looking beautiful takes time, you know."

Serena looked at the gleaming skin, exotic golden eyes, and the pouting lips, red even without lipstick.   Faye looked gorgeous for a two hundred year old and she knew it.   Serena almost snorted, but managed instead to murmur softly, "Oh yeah. Sorry I forgot."  It wasn't as if Faye worked much.  Only those fashion shows for the seasons and some special events.

Faye smirked as if she could read what Serena had been thinking.   "How come you're up?  I thought Cosmo opens the shop this morning."

Serena shrugged.  "Well I told Darien last night that I had to work early, so I decided to do so.  I told Cosmo to come in later on today."

"Awww, you lied to Darien last night and felt guilty about it."  

"Just shut up."

"Boy, you're pretty cranky in the morning, aren't you?"

~*~*~*~

"Good Morning, Silvermoon's, New York." Serena smiled into the receiver.  "Mamoru!  I can't wait for tonight—" her smile halted then disappeared. "Oh, you can't make it tonight." She smiled again, though not as big as her first.  "That's okay, how about tomorrow—" her smile dropped once again.  "You won't be able to see anymore."  She wrapped the cord around her finger.  "No no, I understand.  You have too much business to do here.  Ah-hun.  Well, thanks for calling me to let me know.  I have to go now, the store is getting busy."  She paused and then said softly into the receiver, "Goodbye Darien."  And she hung the phone up before he could say anything else.  The phone rang a few seconds later.  Serena looked at it warily and when she was about to pick it up, the phone abruptly stopped.   'Good,' She thought to herself, 'who needs him anyway.'  But throughout the day, the smile she wore never did reach her eyes.

~*~*~*~

She had called him Darien.  Mamoru looked at the receiver in his hand, it's dial tone ringing out of the earpiece.  He dialed the store again and listened to it ring over and over and over before hanging up again.  'What am I doing?  Why am I calling her again?  I'm calling her again because she called me Darien!'  He ran his hands through his hair and glared at the phone.   He reached out to pick up the phone again when a feminine hand stopped him.  

"Don't be stupid.  It's better this way."   She looked him through her chilly blue eyes.   "You have more important things to do, and this way she won't get hurt."

Mamoru sighed but he knew her to be right.   'Dammit, this isn't fair.' He raged inwardly.  He got up off his chair and stormed toward the door.  The only satisfaction he got from this entire morning was the savage slam that echoed through the hall as he went his way.

~*~*~*~

Sahra yawned as she made it into the kitchen by noon.  She pulled open the refrigerator door and took out her favorite breakfast—chocolate ice cream and frosted flakes.  She snagged a bowl from the dish rack and hurriedly spooned out two huge scoops into it.  She flicked the door open and shoved the carton of chocolaty goodness back in.   Dumping a load of flakes onto her treat, she absently turned on the small television sitting on the counter.  Sahra wrinkled her nose at the screen before switching channels to a station she knew was playing cartoons.  She didn't want to eat her breakfast and hear about a murder that happened last night, especially when they talked about its victim's throat being slashed open.

~*~*~*~

"And did you hear about the cross, knifed into her left breast, and how there was a needle sticking straight out of her heart?"  One of Serena's best customers asked almost excitedly as Serena rang up the up the goods in front of her.  

Serena grimaced before she could stop herself.  "No, actually I didn't hear that until now.  Will this be all you need today, Shelly?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you had any advise on how to do a protection spell or something like that."  Shelly looked at Serena with pleading eyes and waved her gold VISA card around in the air ever so slightly.   "I've been a bit jumpy ever since I saw today's newspaper."

Serena plucked the card and ran it through the credit machine.  She punched in all the necessary numbers and as it started to spit out a receipt, Serena turned to the customer and smiled.  "Of course, Shelly.  Hmm…protection right?  Okay, you bought some red candles today.  Take one and sketch a star into it.   Concentrate on the image of a protective wall made of fire surrounding your apartment while you're doing this.  The red candle is for protection; the star is also a symbol of protection.  Light the wick and burn a bit of basil.   If you like, you can take the candle and burn a bit of basil in all your rooms.  Basil is an herb of protection.  Let the candle burn out by itself.  That should do the trick."  Serena smiled glad to be of help.

Shelly looked a bit taken aback.  "You certainly seem to know a bit on protection spells."

"Yeah well, everyone who's come in here today has been asking about them."  :

Shelly leaned forward with a conspiratorial whisper, "Speaking of herbs, I'm surprised you didn't mention garlic."

Serena blinked, and then put her finger up to the side of her head in thought.  "Well yes, garlic can be used in a spell for protection but it's harder to burn then basil."

Shelly's eyes glittered with barely contained amusement.   "No, I meant garlic being used to protect against vampires."

"Vampires?  What're you talking about?"

"Didn't you know?  The girl that was found murdered this morning was drained entirely of all her blood."

~*~*~*~

         "So, you were working late tonight?"

         Serena didn't whirl around and scream though she was tempted too.  Instead she took a calming breath and turned to the guy who had given her heart a pain that she hadn't felt in years.  "Well, I wasn't doing anything tonight so I figured why not."  Serena had just left the store at 9:30, leaving Cosmos to close the shop up.  She started to walk down the quiet street, the same one where she had met him for the first time yesterday.   Her apartment building was just around the corner.   

         "Wait…please."  His hand grabbed her arm; his voice was soft and insistent.  And guilty.   

         'Serves him right.' Serena sneered at him in her thoughts.  'He should feel guilty, the rat bastard.' But she turned to face him, her face impassive.

         "Look, I like you, I really do.  But I'm here in New York because of something important.  And—"

         "And what, you're afraid I'm going to mess it up for you?"

         "Yes."

         "Excuse me?"

         "I meant that if I'm with you I am going to mess up because I'm going to be too into you to notice anything else."

         Serena felt herself go closer to him.  She smiled up into his eyes and popped him one in the nose. 

         "Owww!"

         "That was for breaking our date on the phone you coward!"  She slugged him in the stomach.  "That's for making me almost cry this morning!  And this is for being a guy!"  She drew her arm back for one more hit but her arm was grabbed and Serena was pulled off balance.  As she stumbled away from Mamoru, the woman who did it ran to him and gave him a huge hug.

         "Are you all right, Darien?  Why was this girl assaulting you?  Is she hitting you because you broke off your date with her because of what I said?"

         Serena righted herself with as much dignity as she had in her.  "Darien, who is she?"  

         "I'm the girl he's living with."  The woman shook her head, her short blue haired twisted in the wind slightly before settling down to frame her face.  Her blue eyes were cool, composed.     Her lips were without gloss or lipstick, a natural shiny pink.  "Ask him if I'm lying."  

         "Darien?"

         He looked at Serena with a bit of desperation in his eyes.  "It's not what you're thinking—" he was cut off by the other woman.

         "We've been living together for over a year now.  And I'll have you know that he was with me all night long after he dropped you off.  The reason he's even in this city has to do with me."

         Serena gave a small gasp and she felt her hand clench into a fist as if she wanted to hit Mamoru or that other girl, but just didn't know which one to hit first.    

         Darien's face grew heated.  He grabbed the blue haired girl by her arm.  "What do you think you're doing!"

         "Am I telling her lies?"  She answered calmly in the face of his anger.

         "But what you're telling her isn't the entire truth either!"

         "Darien, were you with her the entire night after seeing me home?"

         He turned to Serena and opened his mouth before shutting it again.  

         "The hell with you."  She turned and ran off, not responding to his cries of her name.  

~*~*~*~

         "I wouldn't suggest going after her now, she's sure to kick your ass if you got in her way."

         "You bitch." Quiet but filled with such repressed emotion, she looked toward him.  

         "I just did what was best."

         "You mean what was best for you."

         "No.  I did what was best for everyone involved.  You know I was right; that's why you broke your date off in the first place."

         "If it was so right, then why is my heart telling me that letting her go is the most wrong thing I could do at the moment?"

         "Because you're an idiot."  A pause.  "Let's go, we have more important things to do before the night is over."  She turned away from Mamoru and walked the opposite direction of Serena.   After a moment, Mamoru followed her with one last look behind him.

~*~*~*~

         Ever since Serena had come home from work, she had locked herself up in her room.  When Sahra and Faye asked about her date with Mamoru, she threw something hard at the closed door.  They tried to hear what was she doing in her room, but Serena had spellcasted all the bedrooms to be soundproof so they could hear nothing.

         "What did that bastard do to her?"  Faye was pissed.  She stalked back and forth through the kitchen before throwing herself into a chair.  It creaked dangerously at her force.   

         "I don't know.  You want to jump him later?"  Sahra's head was inside of the refrigerator as she looked over the contents inside.

         "Hmph.  I have a feeling that Serena wouldn't like that."

         "Why not?  She let me do it to 'bastard boy'."

         "Yes, but she needed him so she could mess with his memory.  Us beating the snot out of that guy isn't the same thing."  Faye sighed.  Men were such jerks.  Well all except for _him_ but he was dead so it didn't matter.   She sighed again.  Thinking about him always gave her heart a pang.  

         "What are you sighing for?"

         "Nothing, nothing at all."  The anger had drained out of Faye and instead a pensive mood struck her.  

         "Whatever."  Faye could almost hear the shrug in Sahra's voice.  "I think I'll eat the last piece of chocolate cheesecake."  Sahra said gleefully as she plucked her find from the shelf.

         "That bitch!"  Serena came storming into the kitchen, her eyes an angry blue, her mouth twisted in a scowl.

         "Okay then.  I won't take the last piece of cake."  Sahra began to slowly lower the plate back into the refrigerator as if scared a sudden movement might spark an attack.

         "I wasn't talking about you.  I was referring to the girl that was hanging all over Mamo—Darien tonight."

         "What?  Darien has a girlfriend!"  

         "I think that's what the girl was trying to make me think she was."

         "How do you know for sure that's the case?"  Faye asked, curious.

         "She called him Darien."  

         Faye and Sahra looked at each other and then back to the blonde in front of them.  "You just called him Darien."  Sahra pointed out.

         "Yeah, but I'm mad at him right now.  If I were happy with him, he would be Mamoru to me.  He said it himself, that only the people he's close to would know the name 'Mamoru' and use it."

         "Don't you think that's a bit flimsy to base your logic on?"  

         "It's not only that.  Something just wasn't right with what happened earlier, now that I look back on it.  She was so calm and collected; she wasn't fighting over the love of her life.  And Darien said something about her not telling the entire truth.  She wanted to get me away from him but it had nothing to do with love, I'm sure of that."

         "So why then?"

         "It has to do with something she and Darien are involved in, some sort of business."

         "And now you're going to try and find out exactly what they're doing?"

         "Yes."

         "Well I guess there's only one thing to ask—Will you need our help?"

         Serena smiled, "I was hoping you would ask that."

         The television went on.  Serena and Faye turned to look at Sahra and saw her eating cheesecake and watching the ten o'clock news.  "What?" Sahra asked, "I thought we were done with the serious talk."

         Serena stared hard at her friend.  "Is that the last piece of cheesecake?"

         Faye shook her head as Serena began to yell at Sahra that she had been saving that slice.  She turned her attention to the television set as it began to show clips of the fashion show from that morning.    Faye sat down and watched to see if she would see herself on the screen, but she had only begun to watch when the segment was over.  Instead the newscasters started to talk about the body that was found earlier this morning. Faye rolled her eyes and reached to turn the television off when something the newscaster said caught her attention.

         "And she was found, drained of her blood.  Police say that this must have been the work of some sort of cult because of the ritualistic elements in the case.  The body was found with a cross wound on her chest and a silver needle sticking out of her heart.  A message was left on the walls but that information has not been released at this moment—"

          Faye quickly stood up and raced out of the kitchen.  Serena and Sahra blinked at each other, their argument over the cheesecake forgotten as they too raced out of the kitchen.  They reached the living room too late; Faye had left without a word to them and in such a rush.   They looked at each other again and Sahra shrugged.   What had just happened that made Faye rush out like that?

~*~*~*~

Somewhere else In New York City… 

         In the cool, air-conditioned room of the police morgue, a silver glow began to cover the body of a young woman recently killed before the body absorbed it.  The corpse seemed to shudder before settling back down once again, lying there on the examination table, unmoving.  A silver light seems to run through the veins of the body, lighting the form from beneath the skin.   The light moves from the tips of the toes and flashes on up to the heart, where it seems to collect.  The light disappears once more.   Nothing more seems to happen in this dark and cold room, except for the tiniest of movements—the corpse opened its eyes.

Author's Notes:  So sorry this took like almost a month to get this chapter out. *sigh*  It's just that lately I've been very engrossed in the other fanfic I'm writing, **_Come What May_**.  Hopefully though, I will be better about getting chapters out.  Just don't hold you're breath, ne?   So what's going to happen to Serena and Darien?  And what exactly made Faye run out in such a hurry?  And is the dead girl a newly risen vampeal or something more sinister then that?  All these questions and more will be answered…eventually.  You didn't actually think I was going to get to them all in my next chapter did you?  Silly, silly reader--answers are for paying customers.   Anyway, please remember to review!  I love those things…

Hime *^_^*

11/9/01

8:37 p.m.


	7. Dust to Dust

DISCLAIMER:  Just to let all of you guys out there know that Sailor Moon still doesn't belong to me, but the situations in this story do…enjoy!

~*~*~*~

Children of the Night 

Chapter 7— Dust to Dust

By: Hime

If you would like to get an update whenever I update this or any of my other stories, please sign up on my mailing list at himes_fanfiction-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.  I am not sending out individual notices anymore since I have this mailing list up.  Thank you.

~*~*~*~

"The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead."

-Thomas Jefferson

~*~*~*~

         Walter Sidney was walking home late.  He shivered in the cool air and pulled his jacket closer to his body.  'Damn subways.'  He thought darkly.   As he walked by a shadowed alley, he heard the sounds of mewling and then a sucking noise.   "Ah, hello?  Anyone there?" he called out nervously into the dark alley.  He listened closely and was rewarded with a wheezy, high-pitched voice calling out, "Father?"  Sounds like a young girl, he thought to himself.  "I'm not your father, sweetie," he called out soothingly, "come out and we can go find him."  He strained to hear her and heard her shuffling toward him.  As she walked out from the shadows, he noticed with shock that it wasn't a child; it was a young woman, naked and hunched over.   Her hands clutched around some sort of bundle, her head bowed, hiding her features.  'My God,' he thought to himself, 'was she attacked in the alley?'  When she stopped lurching forward, Walter told himself to stay still and not rush too her as he didn't want to scare her if she had been attacked.

         "Not father?" the question came out with a breathy sound.  She still didn't look up at him.  Walter worried if she was in shock or just mentally retarded.  He reached into his pocket slowly to retrieve his cell phone when he remembered that it had been stolen on the subway.  'Dammit, I hate the subways.' He thought distractively.  He stared at the figure before him and watched her hands knead the object in them.  'Must be her clothes.'  He stepped closer to her, going slow, without making any sudden moves.  "Why don't I help you put your clothes on." His voice cut off as he realized that what she held was a dead cat, it's blood staining her hands a brownish red.  Staring in disgust at the cat's corpse, he didn't notice that she had lifted her head and was staring at him with an unnerving look in her eyes.

         "Not father," she said and dropped the cat, "then food." And she lunged at him, hands closing over his shoulders propelling them to the ground.   He screamed, a burst of harsh sound escaping from his throat as he finally saw her face.  She looked at him with hunger, a gray film covering her eyes as if she was looking out from behind a gauzy veil.  Smeared blood around her mouth, gaping wide, showed blood stained teeth.  And on her throat, as if decorating it was several large x's crisscrossing, keeping her slit throat together.   He realized then in a burst of thought that the reason her voice sounded so breathy was because of the air escaping from the hole in her throat that the cross-stitches could not seal.  The monster, he couldn't think of her as human anymore, nuzzled along his throat and gave it a short lap with its tongue as if tasting him.   Walter shuddered in revulsion and fear.  He struggled against it, pushing up with his shoulders and legs, trying to buck it off, but couldn't move the creature.  He wanted to scream; cry, and shout out loud, but nothing came out of his open mouth.  He couldn't seem to breathe and began to see odd black spots, obscuring his vision.  'Please God, let me pass out before it kills me.' 

         "Food."  It wheezed out happily and drew back its head to bite down on his exposed throat.   But before it could complete its strike, a silver dagger came flying through the air to land in its forehead.  The monster fell over to its side, but it wasn't dead as it began to struggle with the hilt, pulling it out of its forehead with a sickening squelch.  The creature looked at the blade before looking at the person who threw it.   It's attention off of Walter; he crawled away on his back slowly.   Suddenly he felt a presence by his head and looked up with alarm only to see a young man kneeling beside him.

         "Great going.  Give it a weapon why don't you." The man all but snarled at one of his female companions.  The woman with her hair in a braid snarled back at him, "Fuck off.  If you had gotten the time right when that thing would rise, we would have killed it already and we wouldn't be here now.  So kiss my ass."  She ran her hands down the sleeves of her leather jacket, pulling out two more silver daggers.  

         "I told you," he began, not bothering to hide his irritation, "it's difficult to be certain as I've never really dealt with creatures like this."  He helped the man to his feet and sent him toward the opening of the alleyway.

         The woman's braid flew as she whirled to face him, her teeth bared.  "This is your fifth creature.  You've had enough time to practice."

         "Silver.  Darien."  Finally, the quiet one of the trio stepped forward, her crossbow held up in case of an accidental release.  The two looked at her and then looked at each other.  Darien could feel a slight blush coming on.  'Dammit,' he thought, 'I'm older then Dawn, but she still has to remind me to behave.  I know better then to fight with Silver, but she's so damn irritating.' 

         "Stop your bickering, we have yet to kill it."  They all looked at the creature who, surprisingly stared back at them docilely.  "Father?" it asked curiously.

         "Do it," was the blue-haired woman's command.

         Darien stepped forward, arms outstretched as if he was about to engulf the creature in a hug.  "Father!" the creature trilled happily and lurched forward.  When it stepped within Darien's reach, his hands seemed to blur and as if he had plucked them out of thin air, were two rectangle pieces of white cotton paper with black-inked Japanese kanji written on them.  He lightly tapped them in place, one on the forehead of the creature, the other over it's heart.   The creature stopped in its tracks, and though it couldn't move it's limbs, it still managed to get out a confused, "Father?"  Darien nodded at Silver.  She put her knives back into their custom-made arm sheathe and reached behind her neck.  Out came a beautiful short-sword, silver and one-edged like a katana.  She gave it a good swing above her head, gaining momentum when she struck the creature at its neck, taking its head off cleanly.  The body stood up for a few seconds before collapsing to the ground.  Silver kept her blade out, ready to hack the creature to pieces if it should even twitch.  Darien came forward, his hands stretched out before him and felt for the creature's aura.  "It's gone," he said finally, opening his eyes, "whatever force that was letting it live is gone, though a trace of the creator's energy remains."

         "Can you follow it back?" came a quiet question from Dawn, her eyes focused with an almost scary intensity.  Darien concentrated again, before shaking his head.  "No, the trace has already disappeared.  But I do have his energy signature memorized.  If I felt it again I would know that it was the same one as this creature."  Silver snorted.

         "Um, excuse me."  All three turned to the alleyway opening, each moving instinctively into a defensive position.  It was the man they had saved earlier.  He drew back immediately, but regained his composure.  "I don't know what that, that thing was but you saved me.  Thank you."  Darien stepped forward. "It's okay.  Go home now."

         "Yes, yes of course." He said and stumbled over his own feet in his haste to leave.

         "Burn it."  Dawn said firmly, walking away from the other two.  Silver made a face at being ordered around but she reached into her pockets and pulled a bottle of lighter fluid and a matchbook.  She kicked the head toward the body and dumped the liquid all over it.  After tossing the empty bottle into a trashcan, she struck a match.  It leapt to life and illuminated her face for a moment, throwing her features into light and shadows.  She threw the match down and watched with a grim satisfaction as the flames ate the body quickly.  The creature burned up, literally, within minutes.   Silver didn't really need to use the lighter fluid—the body would have burnt up by itself.  They had learned that the creatures would burn easily as if they had been made of paper.  As the flames died down, Silver began to kick the ashes, spreading them around the dirty alley.  She did this with an almost malicious glee that Darien had to look away.  As he turned away, he realized that it felt as if someone was watching him.  He looked around, Dawn was looking out into the street, watching for people and Silver was grounding the dust into the cement with the toe of her sleek black boots.  On a hunch, Darien looked straight up and was rewarded with the sight of someone pulling their head back over the side of the roof's outer ledge.

         "Shit." he said out loud, quiet but with feeling.  A small part of him was a little surprised at how easily the obscenity slipped out of him.  He was definitely spending too much time in the company of Silver.  Dawn rushed over to him, her voice low and urgent, "What is it?"

         "I saw someone watching us from the roof."

         She immediately looked up too and scanned the roof for anything.  "Human or otherwise?"

         "Looked human."  He shrugged.  Sure it looked human but that didn't mean it was human.   Dawn looked up at the top of the building, scanning.  Silver joined the two of them.  "What is it?"

         "Nothing."  Dawn said, looking at Silver.  "We should go back now, there's nothing we can do."  Darien watched as Dawn and Silver turned and walked to the entranceway.  He gave a drawn-out sigh and followed, with one last glance at the spot where he had seen the shadow of the watcher.   Crap, things were beginning to get complicated.

~*~*~*~

         "Damn." Faye whispered under her breath.   Coming back from her errand, Faye had heard a man screaming in the alleyway below.  She rushed over to the side of the building, preparing herself to jump down and help him but saw that Darien and two other women had done the job for her.  Turned out Darien's business in the city was to do a little slaying.  'Crap, he better not be after _him_.  Darien's going to get himself killed if that's true.'  Even though Faye wasn't sure if he was still alive after all this time, she saw the news report and that "ritual killing" could only mean one thing.  'Serena's gonna flip when she hears about Darien and his roommates.'  Faye tilted her head in thought.  'Or perhaps I shouldn't tell her—she might get involved and I don't want her hurt.'  Faye brought up her left thumb to worry and made a face as the bitter taste of nail polish filled her mouth.  She looked at the teeth marks on the glossy red surface.  'Shit.  My manicure's ruined.'  She cautiously looked over the side of the roof and found the three gone.  'Probably ran back home.  Hmm, speaking of home, how am I going to explain to Serena and Sahra about me rushing out? What am I thinking?  I don't need to tell them anything.  I'm my own person and they are not my parents.'  Satisfied with her answer, Faye shook her head, the black strands of hair fanned about her form like living ink before settling against her body.  Faye took one more look down into the alleyway.  Things were about to get complicated.

~*~*~*~

         "Are you sure she doesn't know we're following her?"  Serena asked Sahra in a whisper.  Sahra gave her a look as if to say, 'It's alright.'  Serena gave out a small sigh.  They had been following their roommate after seeing her sneaking out of the apartment at two in the morning.  When Faye had come back that night she ran out on them.  She just said she had to run an errand and wouldn't answer any more questions.  Figuring that this late night excursion had something to do with her "errand" of three nights ago, they decided to follow their friend and find out just what was going on.  Serena crept alongside of Sahra and they quietly followed after Faye, relying heavily on Sahra's nose to lead the way.  As they scurried deeper into the night, Serena realized something.   She pulled on Sahra's black sweater and hissed as quietly as she could, "Is she going to the cemetery?"  Sahra turned to her and said with a shrug, "Won't find out until we get there."   They both began to hurry their steps; cutting the three-block lead they had given to Faye to just one.  As the sign, "New Haven Cemetery" came into view; Serena gave Sahra a pointed look to which Sahra just shrugged in reply.   They watched from behind a conveniently abandoned car and saw Faye enter the cemetery grounds and wait under a huge tree.  Faye turned her back from the entrance, and looked as if she was waiting for someone.  A minute later, a person dressed all in black joined her.

         "Let's see if we can get closer."  Sahra said with a grin and began to glide out on all fours.  Serena made a grab for her and missed her jean-covered leg by a few centimeters.  "Sahra!  Get back here!  You're going to get caught!"  Serena yelled in a whisper, her throat getting sore by her effort.   Serena fumed for a moment before following her friend.   Sahra always had to make things more complicated.

~*~*~*~

         "Hello Faye.  I see you're looking well.  Living in the human world suits you." A female voice, low and husky came from the beneath the black hood of her cloak. 

         "And living in the vampire world has saved your life."  Faye said smartly.

         "Yes it has, hasn't it?" The unknown stranger lifted the hood off of her head, revealing an exquisite face of an angel; deep black hair softly framed her heart-shaped face of porcelain skin, silver eyes, and ruby-red lips.   She smiled at Faye, flashing two white fangs that reflected the light from the moon.

         "Speaking of Vampires, where's Dev?"

         "He's on another job."

         "And sent you here all alone?"  A question voiced with quiet interest, said with a raised eyebrow.

         "He trusts you." A beat later, "I trust you."  A true smile, one a friend gives to another.

          "Thank you." Faye smiled back, "Now that all the requisite vampiric B.S. is done, can you tell me if--"

         "If he's still alive?" 

         Faye gave a small shiver before answering, "Yes."

         "Why don't I tell you after we get rid of a couple of eavesdroppers."

         "Huh?"

         "Two people followed you here, a were-creature and a human."

         Faye whirled around and saw Serena trying to run on all fours toward the cemetery gates.  After falling, she gave up, stood up straight, and sprinted to where Sahra crouched down.   "Shit."

         "You didn't know about them?"

         "If I did, you think I would lead them to us?"

         "Maybe living in the human world isn't so good for you after all.  You're losing your edge."

         "I want to be a normal person.  I don't need an "edge" anymore."

         The woman looked at Faye with her beautiful eyes filled with concern.  "You're a vampire.  You will always need your edge."  When Faye didn't answer, she asked, "What should we do to those two?"

         "I'll deal with them.  They're my roommates."

~*~*~*~

         "Fall on your ass, did you?"  Faye's voice asked as suddenly as she had appeared in front of Serena and Sahra.

         "Well Serena fell, but she didn't land on her ass.  It was more like a belly flop." Sahra said with a smile, unconcerned at getting caught spying on her friend.  

         "Look, I know you're upset—" Serena began quickly, a preemptive strike before Faye had a chance to yell at them.

         "If you knew I would be upset, why did you follow me?"  Came Faye's question, sliding with cool ease over Serena's hasty explanation.

         "Because, because we were worried about you!" Serena shouted.  "You didn't run out of the apartment because you forgot to pick something up on the way home.  You looked as if you had seen a ghost." 

         Faye stared at her with impassive eyes. 

         "You're our friend."  Sahra's quiet statement caused the two to look at her.  She smiled backed at them before repeating, "You're our friend."

         Faye shook her head in bemusement.  Something so simple had just taken the fight out of her.  'Well, you wanted to be friends with them and now you have it.  Might as well let them in on the meeting with Moonlight.'  Faye thought to herself, 'They will need to know if I put them in danger just by being their roommate.'    Faye began to move toward the other woman, standing under the tree branches. "Well if you want to know what's going on, I guess you better come along."

         Serena stared in shock at Faye's retreating back.  "Why did we go through that whole spy business if Faye was going to let us in on whatever she's doing?"

         Sahra turned to Serena with a grin, "I only did the 'follow the leader' bit because that's what you decided we should do."  Sahra followed Faye into the cemetery, before looking over her shoulder to say,  "You just like to make things complicated."

~*~*~*~           

Author's Notes:  I am so sorry this chapter took so long to come out. *sigh*  I told myself I would be posting regularly but well…

At least school is over, though I do have two more finals this Friday.  At least it'll all be over by Saturday.

Hime *^_^*

12/19/01


	8. After Eden

DISCLAIMER:  Just to let all of you guys out there know that Sailor Moon still doesn't belong to me, but the situations in this story do…enjoy!

~*~*~*~

**Children of the Night******

Chapter 8—After Eden

By: Hime

Updates at himes_fanfiction-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

~*~*~*~

"Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin."  
--Aesop 

~*~*~*~

            "You live with a were-creature and a human?"  The lady in black asked Faye.

            Serena bristled. "I'm a witch, thank you very much."

            "Touchy isn't she?"  The lady in black asked Faye as if Serena wasn't there.

            "She can be."  Serena gritted her teeth at Faye's answer.  "Moonlight, I would like you to meet Sahra and Serena."  She pointed to her friends in turn.  "Guys, I would like to introduce you to Moonlight."

            "What kind of name is Moonlight?   Is she a born again vampire?" Sahra asked.

            "Excuse me?'

            Faye had her hand against her forehead as if to ward against a headache.  "Don't mind her; she's an idiot."

            "I resent that!"

            "And I resent you following me."  Faye rounded on Sahra.

            "Let's not argue now—we can do that when we get home." Serena said calmly.

            "The witch is right.  I have more important things to do then watch you argue with your roommate, though interesting it might be."

            "Yeah, listen to the vampeal spy."

            Shock registered on Moonlight's face for a brief moment before it regained its blank countenance.  "I prefer being called an 'information specialist.'"

            "No matter what you want to call yourself, you are what you are."  Serena shrugged.  She could tell that she was irritating Faye's "information specialist", but she didn't care.  Witches hated vampeals after all.

            "Yes, I am what I am."  Moonlight smiled without humor, purposely letting her white fangs withdraw from her upper jaw.  Serena gave in to her urge to yawn in the vampeal's face with boredom.  'As if I didn't live with a vampire.' She thought to herself with some contempt.  At this, Faye grew alarmed.  She didn't need blood to be drawn from Serena or the dust of Moonlight on her hands.  Dev would kill her if Serena dusted his lifemate.

            "Moonlight, put your fangs back into your mouth and Serena stop aggravating someone who could rip your throat out in a blink of an eye.  I don't need any of this crap from either of you."  Faye snapped.  The two turned to look at Faye before turning to look at each other once more.  With an audible sniff, they both turned to look away in unison.

            "Wow.  That almost looked rehearsed." Sahra said, her eyes wide.

            Moonlight tried to stifle the small burst of laughter the wereleopard's comment had caused.  While the witch's attitude was irritating, the leopard was amusing.

            Serena shot a look at Sahra who turned to give her an innocent look.  Giving a sigh, Serena let her shoulder's slump in defeat.  What kind of witch was she to let a vampeal live?

            "She didn't do anything to you.  You don't even know if she did anything to anyone else.  You should know better then to just judge someone else."  Faye told her friend sternly.

            "Even if she's never harmed a living person, which I sincerely doubt, she's disrupting the balance of nature.  She is, literally, the living dead."  Serena couldn't help but shudder in disgust.

            "I can't change your mind about my kind.  In all reality, I don't care enough to try.  I will tell you this though—I felt the same way you do now.  But life is not black and white and you never say for sure what choice you will make when faced with life or death."

            "Whatever happens to me in the future, I will never make the same choice you made."  Serena stated with a calm dignity.  "I would rather die once, then face death every morning."

            Sahra made a high-pitched whining sound in the back of her throat.  "Don't talk about dying."

            Serena's eyes softened as she looked at her distressed friend. She gave Sahra a small hug and said, "Don't worry.  I'm not going to die anytime soon."

            In a soft tone that only Faye heard, and perhaps Sahra if she had been listening, Moonlight said, "You never know what will happen in the future."  Faye looked at the vampeal with unblinking eyes.

            Without taking her eyes away, Faye addressed her two roommates. "Both of you keep quiet until this meeting it over."  Faye could feel Serena's angry gaze on her back but the blonde witch didn't make a comment.  "Now that we all know each other and where we stand, tell me, is he still alive."

            Serena and Sahra turned to look at each other with wide eyes.  Who was this "he" that Faye was asking about?

            "You know the answer without me telling you."

            "I still need to hear it." An edge of desperation made Faye's voice sharp in the quiet night.

            "Yes, he's still alive."

            Right before their eyes, Faye seemed to sink within herself.  "He's supposed to be dead.  Father said so." She murmured to herself, wrapping her arms around her body as if to ward off a chill.

            "Your father lied.  Seeing as how special he was, the council wanted to do some experiments on him.  You're father tried to stop them but he was voted down by the rest.  They had him for over a century before he escaped."

            "You mean he's been loose for over a century and they haven't yet destroyed him?"

            "They don't even acknowledge that he's alive."

            "But they're the ones that—"

            "I don't know why you feel disbelief that the council would do something like this.  You know they're all just hypocritical bastards looking out for only themselves."

            "That's not true!  My father is part of that council!"

            "Yes and he lied to you didn't he and he's still lying. He went along with a hundred years of horrible testing to his own—"

            "Shut up.  I don't care if Dev will hate me for it, but if you say anything more about my father I will kill you."  Faye's voice was calm and deadly, much like her manner.

            Moonlight's eyes flashed first with hurt and then with quiet anger.  "I guess you don't mind his part in all of this."

            "He's still my father and it's because of him that you're still alive."

            "No, it wasn't his hand that stayed my execution.  I know from Dev that you were the one to convince your father to suggest that he and I be labeled outcast instead of rogues."

            Once more, Serena and Sahra looked each other in confusion.  What the hell was going on between the two of them?

            Faye continued speaking.  "I only talked to him, he didn't have to agree."

            "Whatever."  Moonlight reached behind her head to pull her hood on once more.  Turning away, she said, "Since he's been loose, he's been killing and experimenting.  Dev and I don't know what he's up to, but we know it's nothing good.  Be careful.  All his victims have one thing in common—they all look like you."  Moonlight ignored the horrified gasp that came from Serena.  "Make sure the payment's in the safe, you know the combination.   Goodbye Faye.  I hope to see you soon, under better circumstances."

            As the vampeal vanished into the night, Faye lifted her hand in farewell and said, "Thank you.  Give Dev my love."

            "Why would she give this Dev person her love?"  Sahra asked an equally confused Serena.

            Turning to face her roommates, Faye answered, "Because Dev is my brother."

~*~*~*~

            "You made us walk in silence while you thought everything out and we're home now, so talk already.  Just tell us what's going on."  Serena demanded from the silent vampire.   They had just locked the door behind them when the short blonde grabbed her taller friend by the shoulders and began to shake her.

            "And tell us what did Moonlight mean when she said it was because of you that she's an outcast and not a rogue.  What's a rogue and what's so bad about being one?" Sahra chimed in, not willing to be a silent participant.

            With a low snarl, Faye shrugged off Serena's grip and stalked toward the kitchen.   Serena and Sahra followed at a much slower pace.  When they cautiously opened the swinging door, they saw the vampire looking haphazardly through the cabinets.

            "Where the hell do you keep the liquor?  I know you have some, you used it in a couple of spells you were brewing in here."  Faye continued to search, pulling open door after door.  

            Serena stepped forward to lead the vampire to a seat.  "Um, that's cooking brandy, I was trying to make a desert."

            "Well, where is it?"  Faye made a move to stand up before Serena pushed her back down into her chair.

            "No, no.  That stuff taste bad."

            "I don't care.  That's the only alcohol we have in the apartment."  Faye gave Serena an accusatory glance before putting her head down on the kitchen table, using her arms to cushion it.  "I just need a drink."  Her voice came out muffled.

            With a frown, Serena stared at Faye before turning on her heel and left the kitchen.  In a couple of minutes she was back with a black pouch.  Slamming it down on the table, she said, "Here. Chivas Regal."

            Without looking up, Faye turned her head to the side, and stared at the black pouch with little interest.   "What, no glass?"

            Without a word, Serena reached into an already open cabinet and took out a short, squat glass with a famous blonde cartoon character and her black cat on its surface.  "Enjoy." 

            Sitting up, Faye reached for the glass with one hand and pulled the bag down from the bottle with the other.  Picking up the scotch, she looked it over.  "It really is Chivas Regal.  And you were hiding this in your room?  What are you, a closet drunk?  Is that how you know cooking brandy taste bad?  You've been dipping into the bottle?"

            Serena slammed her palm onto the kitchen table, causing Sahra to jump in surprise.  "Don't take your anger out on me."  She fairly hissed.  "The scotch was a gift."  

            With a quick flick of the wrist, Faye broke the seal and unscrewed the lid.  She let it drop to the table before pouring herself a healthy shot into the glass.  "Here's looking at you, kid."  Mockingly, Faye raised her drink in salute toward the angry witch before downing her drink in one gulp.  Without hesitation she poured herself a full glass before drinking that down too.

When Faye began to pour herself a fourth glass, Serena's anger melted into concern.   "Hey, slowdown.  You might get alcohol poisoning."

            With an ugly laugh, Faye tossed back her scotch and gave a smirk.  "A vampire does not get alcohol poisoning.  Only those with weak constitutions like humans can die from alcohol.  We don't even get drunk."

            Ignoring the crack about human's "weak constitutions", Serena asked, "Then why are you drinking like that if you can't get drunk."

            "I'm a great pretender."

            Serena and Sahra looked at each other before turning to watch Faye. Serena's eyes were filled with exasperation as she looked at the scotch swilling vampire.  'Sometimes that girl is so annoying.  For someone so old, you would think she would have grown up by now.'  

            Sahra's eyes were filled with something akin with awe.  'That has to be her sixth glass.  I wonder why she doesn't just drink straight from the bottle.  It's not like Serena's planning on drinking it anyway.'

Finally, enough was enough, and Serena grabbed the bottle away from Faye.  

"I knew you were a closet drunk."

            "Just shut up."  Recapping the bottle, Serena put it back into the black pouch and put it on the counter.   Faye held her glass up to Serena.  "Don't forget to rinse it now."  If Serena had been a vampire, she would have bared her fangs already.  "Okay fine, don't rinse it.  I don't care, it's not my cup anyway."  Serena snatched it out of Faye's hand and placed it in the sink, rinsing it out a couple of times before leaving it there.

            "You've had your drink.  Actually, you've had more then half of the bottle.  So tell us what's going on around here."

            Taking a deep breath, Faye closed her eyes and let her head fall backward, ignoring the strain she felt on the back of her neck.  Serena and Sahra took a seat on the remaining chairs.  Letting her breath out in one loud whoosh, Faye opened her eyes to look at Sahra.  "Rogues are what we vampires call those vampires who make a vampeal illegally.  Their offspring are also called rogues.  You can only make a vampeal when given special permission by the Vampire Council.   If you're labeled a rogue, you will be hunted down and destroyed.  An outcast vampire or vampeal will never be part of the vampire community; they will always be living, if you can call it that, on the outside fringes.  Moonlight is an illegal vampeal.  My brother changed her over because they love each other and she was going to die of cancer.   If they had been labeled as rogues, they both would have died.  As outcast, they make their way by being spies, as Serena called her.  Many vampires on the council use their services."

            Serena fumed quietly as Faye talked before asking, "Why are you talking about rogue vampires?  I asked what's going on now.  I didn't ask for a vampire culture lesson."

            Without looking at Serena, Faye responded, "No you didn't, but Sahra asked about them earlier.  And since she's the only one in this room that I like at the moment, I chose to answer her question first."

            "What?  I'm the one who gave you liquor!"

            "Yeah, and you're the one who also kept bothering me while I was drinking it."  Faye smiled at Serena's low muttering.  It was the first time she smiled all night long.  It didn't last long as she thought about what she had to tell her two friends.  The first two friends she made in such a long time.  "Okay, so you wanted to know what's going on.  Well it wouldn't make sense unless I told you about my past."  Faye's face was blank, but her eye's were bleak.   "My family used to reside in a small town in the countryside of France called Dimanche.  We lived in an old castle, quite drafty and falling apart.  But it was still a castle with towers and a dungeon.  I was born there and raised there, in that castle and in that village.   And one day in that village, I fell in love.  His name was Marcus and his father was a wealthy merchant.  My parent's didn't approve of course, but we didn't care.  My parents told me that being with him was a mistake. He was not one of us and he would never understand what we are.  Marcus would think of me as a monster if he ever found out that I was a vampire.  

Serena gave a small sigh.  "Forbidden love.  Just like Romeo and Juliet."  Faye gave a bitter smile at the allusion.   

"Still, we were happy, but Marcus was human and humans tend to die."  Serena's eyes closed as she berated herself for bringing up the Shakespearean tragedy.  Faye paused for a moment, blinking away the tears that had sprung in her eyes.  "We were riding late one night.  He said it would be romantic. And it was until that highwayman stopped us.   Marcus wrestled for the gun and in the melee it fired.   As soon as the gun went off, that bastard ran away, leaving Marcus bleeding there on the ground.  We were miles away from town; there was no way to get help for him in time.  He was dying there in my arms."

            "So you turned him. You made him into a vampeal" Serena's quiet statement hung in the air.

            "I told him that I loved him and I that I could save his life.  I told him what I was.  And he told me he still loved me and he still wanted to be with me more than he feared eternal damnation."

            "I thought it was illegal to make vampeals?"  Sahra broke in.

            "This was before the council passed the law."

             "So then what?  I mean that can't be the end right?"  Serena asked.

            "No, that wasn't the end.  You see, it takes three days after you die before you rise again as a vampeal.   After exchanging blood, I held him until his heart stopped beating.  When he died, I rode back to town to tell them what had happened.  My parents knew that I had changed him, but it was too late for them to do anything.  So three days later, when he rose from his grave, my parents sent us both away to a small town to await decision from the council."

            "And what did the council decide?  That you two couldn't be together?"  Sahra asked.

            "Actually, I never did find out what they decided for us."

            "Why not?"

            "Because in the end, the answer was not needed."

~*~*~*~

Moulines, France 1743 

            "Shall we go to dine then?"  He turned away from the window to look at her.  She was beautiful; more beautiful now then she had looked to him two weeks ago.  Even in the dark, without lighting the candles or the fire, he could see her so clearly.

            "I don't feel like eating right now."  

            "Please.  You have to eat.  You need the blood."

            "I never realized how terrible I would feel to think of my fellow men as food.  To feed off them as if they were cattle."  His voice was low, almost too low for her to hear.  She wasn't sure if it was low with regret or self-loathing.  The rustle of her skirts as she turned away from him was loud to his ears, his hearing magnified beyond comprehension.

            "Do you regret becoming a vampeal then?" She asked.   A moment later his arms enfolded her from behind, and she shivered in his embrace before his flesh leeched some of the warmth from hers. "Never.  As long as I'm with you, I don't care what happens to me."  Her arms reached to clasp his tightly, before she stepped away from him.  "Then come with me to eat."  With one last look out the window he stepped forward, his hand out to her.  'As long as I'm with you.'  He repeated to himself and let her lead him out the door.

~*~*~*~

            "See, that wasn't so bad.  And from now on, like we did this time, we'll only drink from those who deserve to be preyed on; those who prey on others."  She rubbed his back in soothing circles as he leaned his forehead on the bricked wall in the alley.  

            "I almost killed him."  His voice was raspy with horror.

            "But you didn't."  He stood up then, and took a huge breath, a breath he didn't need to take now that he was…different.   Stepping away from her, he looked out into the busy streets.  No one had looked into the dark alley all the time they had been there.   People walked by, never thinking about what was hiding from them, in those dark spaces between the buildings.  Behind him, he could hear her talking to the man in a low murmur, telling him over and over to forget what happened.   She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't hear that voice, but he did.  It sounded like his father.  As if in a trance, he walked out into the busy streets and blended in with the crowd.  With a fast pace he followed the sound of his father's voice and he was soon close enough to his father that he could smell him.   And he was close enough to see his father get pulled into a dark alleyway.  

            With a roar, he started to push his way through the crowd, not caring if he sent those people flying when he used his inhuman strength.  Running, he got to the alley just in time to see a man dressed in black raise his knife into the air above his father's head.

            "No!" He cried and surged forward, ripping the knife from the robber's hand and then pushing him away, sending him to meet the wall, with the other.   Satisfied that the would-be thief was unconscious, he turned to his father in concern.  

"Father."  He said, with a hint of fear in his voice that he had come too late.

"Marcus?"  The old man's voice, cracked with age and disbelief as he whispered his son's name.  

With a relieved grin, Marcus stepped forward, opening his arms wide to embrace his father; the only other family he had.  

            "Marcus!"  Faye was calling to him, and he turned his head toward her voice.   His attention averted, Marcus didn't notice when his father slowly brought out a silver pistol and aimed for his chest.   

~*~*~*~

            "Marcus!" She shouted, in concern and with some fear.  For all his newfound abilities, Marcus was quite hesitant to use them and he might get hurt.  She called his name again and worried when he failed to answer once more.  "Marcus!" 

            A shot rang out into the air.  Faye's head turned to the direction of the sound.  The voice of an old man was heard and soon, people began to shout.

            "You are not my son!"  Another shot was heard.  "He's dead, my real son is dead!  Someone, help me kill this monster who has stolen my son's face!"

            Faye took off in a dead run, her heart beating against her chest, every beat telling her to run faster, get there before it's too late.  Roars of townspeople were heard and a cry from a single man was borne on the night air.  'Marcus!' Faye thought to herself.  'Please, please…' she pleaded, but to who, she had no idea.  She turned the corner just in time to see the jagged end of a handle of a broom speared downward into a body hidden by the crowds.

            "No!"  She cried, and rushed forward, shoving her way through the crowds, not caring when those she threw flew across the street, landing in awkward positions, breaking an arm or even breaking a neck.  The rest of the crowd loosened and backed away from the body.  It was then that she saw him, his body bloodied, his eyes closed, and the wooden spear sticking out of his chest.  With a savage yell, she ripped the spear out of his heart and let the offending piece of wood fall to the ground.  She went to her knees and watched as blood welled up in the wound before running down his side.  In keen sorrow, she brought his head onto her lap and she ran her hands over his face, stroking his cheek, his brow with loving hands all the while whispering his name over and over.  When his lids stayed shut, never opening to allow a glimpse of his beautiful gray-blue eyes, Faye closed hers and rocked back and forth on her knees, tears falling onto his face before running down, looking as if he was the one who was crying, even in his death.  After a few moments, Faye quieted and with gentle hands, moved Marcus' head off her lap.  Grasping the bloodied spear, she used it to help her stand.  

            "For all your idiocy, you used the only weapon that could truly kill him."  She said, looking at the crowd around her.  They stared back at her, shocked at what had just happened and shocked at her reaction to seeing the body of the monster.  "Isn't it unfortunate that there are a lot of things that can kill all of you."

            "Lady Pierre d'Sang?  Faye?" 

            Faye turned in the direction of the voice and saw Marcus's father standing a good two feet away from her, his eyes filled with confusion, his hands still holding a piece of wood he had used as a club on his own son. 

            "Hello, Father-in-law."  Faye said quite calmly before hurling the spear in her hands at his head.

~*~*~*~

            "You foolish girl.  Do you realize what you did?  You slaughtered nearly twenty people before the riders from the council arrived."  Faye's father scolded the girl in front of him.  He had been yelling at her for the past week and all she did was stare straight ahead with a blank stare on her face.  In fact that was all she did since those council members managed to smuggle her back to her parents castle after they had hypnotized the town that a small band of bandits had looted and killed as they rode through the city.  They also did some pilfering to make the story look more authentic.  "You almost jeopardized everything, just because your toy died."  

            For the first time in days, Faye stopped looking into nothing and stared at her father with her unblinking golden eyes.  They had a feral look to them that made him take a step backwards.  

            "He was my husband."  She hissed, standing up in her anger.  "We were married the day we got into Moulines.  And those, those…" She couldn't think of what to call those townspeople, nothing she knew was as horrible as what they had done to her love.    "They killed him!  His father helped!  And they would call him a demon."  At this, Faye broke down crying, burying her face into her hands and collapsed onto the sofa.  This crying seemed to scare her father even more then her earlier outburst and he looked at his wife for help.

            With a dirty look toward her husband, Faye's mother stepped forward and sat next to her youngest child.  Gathering her in her arms, she murmured against Faye's black hair, "There, there Faye.  You have to take care of yourself, even though your husband is gone.  If you don't, what will happen to the child?"

            "The child?" Both father and daughter asked in surprise, Faye shocked out of her tears.

            "You didn't notice it then."

            "Notice what?"

            "That you're pregnant."

~*~*~*~

New York City, Present Times 

            "Faye!  You were pregnant?"

            "Yes.  It turned out that I was about three weeks pregnant.  My mother said that she could hear the heartbeat and that's how she knew.

            "That's amazing.  So what did you have?"

            "I had a monster."

~*~*~*~

_France, 1751_

            "Mother, I have a present for you.  I left it waiting outside the door."

            Faye almost shuddered at that sweet, high-pitched voice but she caught herself in time.  A mother doesn't shudder at the sound of her child's voice.  Instead, she pasted on a smile and went to the door to look.  His giggles followed her.  Slowly and with great care she opened the door and took a cautious look out.  Seeing nothing, her face became puzzled.

            "Look down silly."  Her son called out to her.

            Taking a deep breath, Faye looked down, prepared to see what horror her son had for her today.  Instead she saw the dead body of a gray cat lying there.  On closer inspection, the body looked unharmed and its chest seemed to be moving as it breathed.  What a surprise, her son left her something that wasn't dead.  Maybe he had found the cat injured and was moved with sympathy, enough to bring it home to his mother to save.  With soft eyes, Faye reached down to pick the cat up when she smelled something, smelled it--the scent of death.  Her son behind her gave another burst of giggles as she paused over the cat.  With a trembling hand, she nudged the cat and to her horror, hundreds of little white maggots fell out of the dead cat's skin.  Faye screamed in surprise, in horror and quickly backed away.  Upon noticing that the maggots were starting to wiggle their way into her home, she quickly ran for the broom and swept them and the dead cat away from her home.  Her son's giggles gave way to full-borne laughter at her antics.  Once Faye was satisfied that the maggots were far enough away from her home, she began to shake her broom out, trying to get all the maggots out of it before she brought it into the house.  Striding back into her home, Faye put the broom away before facing her son.  He was quite a handsome little boy—with his porcelain hued face and hair a deep midnight black like his mothers, his dimples and his gray-blue eyes from his fathers.  But where did his evil nature come from?  

'Because he is an unnatural child.' A voice whispered in her thoughts.  And Damis was an unnatural child.  He was the first child born to a vampire and a vampeal.  Though it happened very rarely, vampires had been known to have half-breeds, children with both vampire and human blood.  But vampeals couldn't give life—they were dead and no fruit ever grows out of a dead garden.  But then Damis was born, the first of his kind.  In the beginning, Faye had been overjoyed with her child.  He was a miracle, born from the love of his parents.  But as he grew, he began to do things; very bad things.  He would start fires as if by accident and when the animals of the town started to turn up missing, Faye decided they had to leave, go somewhere more secluded; somewhere where Damis couldn't hurt anyone.  Couldn't hurt anyone except his mother.  He had been five years old when they had left and now he was eight. 

"Damis, that wasn't a very nice thing to do."  She told her son as sternly as she could.  She tried to keep any other emotion from her voice, as that would just encourage him even more.  

"You didn't like my present?"  He asked her, his voice innocently curious as his eyes danced up at her.

"No I didn't."  Faye waited to hear what he would say next.  

"Someone's coming."

"What?"

Damis cocked his head to the side in concentration.  "Someone's coming here.  In a carriage."

Faye went to the window, and sure enough she could make out a moving dot riding down the road.  She turned to look at her son but he had disappeared, and she heard one of the windows creak open.  'Where is he going?'  She thought to herself before thinking that it was probably better that whoever was coming not to meet her child after all.

~*~*~*~

            "What do you mean, the council wants my son dead!"  Faye hissed at her father between clenched teeth.

            Her father sighed, before continuing, "The council has decided that he's dangerous.  He has to be put down now while it can be done.  We don't know if we will be able to kill him when he's older and his powers start to come in."

            "But he's just a child.  My child.  Your grandchild!  How can you sit there and tell me you want him dead."

            "It wasn't my decision.  This is what the council decided and we have to follow their orders."

            "No we don't!"  Shaking her head in denial, her hair went flying back and forth.

            "We do if we want to stay alive."

            "What kind of mother sacrifices her own child to live?"

            "And what kind of mother would allow her child to grow up into a monster."

            "What?  What are you talking about?"  Faye stopped to look at her father, her eyes wide with shock.

            "You know what I mean.  Why did you and Damis move out here in the middle of nowhere?  There is something wrong with him and you know it."

            "So you feel that just because he did some bad things when he was younger, that justifies his murder now?"

            "Tell me the truth.  Has he stopped doing those bad things?"

            Faye had to look away from her father as she remembered what had just happened twenty minutes before her father's arrival.

            "So he hasn't.  If he continues to grow, who knows what he will start killing when he loses interest in animals."

            "Like you care about humans."

            "No, I don't care much for them other then the fact that they are food.  But you do.  You will always have a soft spot for the human race because you fell in love with one.  That's why you don't want to kill Damis, he reminds you of Marcus."

            "If I killed Damis, it would be like I was killing Marcus."

            "To compare that child to Marcus is sullying to him.  What, don't look surprised at me.  I may not have liked him but I am not blind.  Marcus was a good man.  Probably hated 'preying' on his fellow men when he was a vampeal, right?  His son unfortunately is not so good.  Do you think Marcus would have liked to know that his son likes to kill, that he's amused by death?"

            Her head fell forward, her long black hair hiding her face from view.  "I love Damis, but he scares me.  I don't want him to hurt anyone."  She stopped speaking and took a deep breath before continuing,  "I can't be the one to do it."  She whispered.  She felt her father's hesitant hand on her head before he began to stroke her hair slowly; something he hadn't done since she was a child.  

            "That's why I'm here."

~*~*~*~

New York City, Present Times 

            Silence and then Sahra asked, "So you left it all to your father and it turns out he lied?"

            "When Damis came back from wherever he went, my father pretended he was just visiting his grandson.  He gave him some candy and after Damis had some, he passed out.  I thought he had died; I didn't hear his heartbeat anymore."  Faye shook her head in disbelief. "Whatever my father gave Damis, it must have put Damis in some sort of coma, where it slowed his heartbeat until it was imperceptible."  Then with a bitter smile she said, "Or perhaps I was too relieved that I didn't have to worry anymore that I didn't even want to check if he was alive or not."

            "And now it turns out that he's been out for a while, experimenting all these years and all that he experiments on looks like you.  How creepy it that?"  Sahra asked.  Serena jabbed her elbow into the wereleopard's side.

            "Ow!  Why'd you do that for?"

            "I'm so sorry Faye.  For all that happened to you."  Serena put her hand over her friend's and gave it a gentle squeeze.  

            "I don't deserve it.  If I didn't try to kill my own son, perhaps this wouldn't have happened.  Perhaps I could have taught him better."

            "Perhaps you would be dead."

            "Sahra!"

            "But it's true.  If Faye's thinking about what could have happened if he lived, that's also a possibility."

            Faye was silent.  It wasn't as if she had never thought of the same thing.  It's just that she thought it made her a horrible person to think it.

            "People; everyone has some good in them, even vampires.  I believe in that.  I have to."  Serena said haltingly.  "But people and vampires are born with souls.  If Damis is a child of a vampeal, perhaps he was born without a soul.  If so, it would be better for him to not live in this world.  All it would cause is hate and anger on his part and fear and death on the other."

            'Can someone be born without a soul?' Faye thought to herself.  'If one can be born from death, can they be born without a soul?'

            "Well it doesn't matter anymore whether or not he has a soul.  He's been killing people for a long time.  That Moonlight person said he's been experimenting for a long time.  That means he's had a lot of victims.  I don't want there to be anymore.  I don't want you to become one."  Sahra said seriously, as serious as Faye had ever seen her.  "We have to stop him; it's as simple as that."

            "It's not as simple as that."  Serena blew her breath out in a rush.  "We have no idea what type of vampire or vampeal powers he has.  And he's been loose a long time.  Enough time to really get good at whatever he's doing."  

            "And so what?  Are you saying that we shouldn't stop him?"

            "No, of course we try to stop him.  What I'm saying is, even though we are more than your average three humans, he is some sort of miracle child." Faye flinched at Serena's use of the word "miracle," Serena didn't notice and went on.  "We need more help.  People who actually know how to go about this sort of thing."

            And the light bulb went on above Faye's head.  'People who actually know how to go about this sort of thing.'  

            "I think I know some.  Hunters."  Faye said breathlessly, her smile a bit skewered on her face.

            "You know some hunters?"  Serena asked, her eyes wide.

            "Yeah.  One of them is your boyfriend."

~*~*~*~

Author's Notes:

Yes I am aware how long it's been since I last updated but hey, I gave you an extra long chapter to make up for it.  Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter.  You know, you pre-reader was laughing throughout this chapter even when it wasn't supposed to be funny. ~_~;

Before this summer is out, I hope to have one more chapter of both my series done because after this summer I might not be able to write for 5 months or so.  This fall, I will be going to DisneyWorld to work there and since I'll be living in one of their apartment complexes, that mean I won't have a computer in my room.  Also, come on!  I'll be in DisneyWorld.  Who has time to write when we're working 5 days a week and there's so much different and new stuff to try?  There are computer labs so I will try to write, but don't hold your breath.  ^_~

Hime

5/20/02


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